Category Archives: Random Rants

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Who became Cyclonus? Skywarp, Bombshell or an Insecticon Clone?

June 3, 2024 Big Angry Trev 1 Comment

There are certain debates that run in fandoms, sometimes for decades.

Star Wars: Why didn’t Anakin’s rich princess girlfriend ever buy Anakin’s mother out of slavery for him, and why when he was a powerful Jedi did he wait so long to go back for her?

Star Trek: How was it Kirk could spend decades surviving every danger in the galaxy, even getting into a fight with God, yet was killed by a rickety bridge on some backwards planet?

Harry Potter: If Voldermort had no nose, how did he smell?

In the 1986 film The Transformers: The Movie, amongst numerous other animation errors, there was at one point two of Cyclonus. One seeming to be reformatted from Bombshell, the other from Skywarp. The second Cyclonus (sometimes called ‘Armada’) quickly disappeared.

So fans have been arguing for decades – Who became Cyclonus? Bombshell or Skywarp?

Well truth be told, there is no real answer. In the original script, just like how Scourge (reformatted from Thundercracker) had a slew of identical looking bots to him called The Sweeps, so the script called for there to be multiple bots that looked like Cyclonus.

Toys Review – Studio Series Hot Rod & Scourge

This idea was dropped from the script, but not before the animation had been produced and included, which resulted in there being two of Cyclonus on screen.

So no, there is no official answer. It’s an animation error, plain and simple.

So perhaps the question should be. Which bot does it make more sense for to be turned into Cyclonus – Bombshell or Skywarp?

Some fans argue vehemently that it should be Bombshell as he was the closer one to screen during the reformatting. Bombshell was most prominent, so therefore it should be Bombshell. There have also been a few pieces of ancillary media, such as the Transformers Universe comic and a 2003 video game that state Bombshell became Cyclonus.

But at this risk of irritating these fans, and thus reigniting a geek-war which has never truly died, I argue that it should be Skywarp. In fact, I argue that Bombshell should not even be considered as it makes more sense for it to have been an Insecticon Clone. Let’s look at why.

Vehicle Symmetry

Thundercracker, the blue jet, was reformatted into Scourge, a blue Cybertronian flying craft. Therefore it makes sense for Skywarp, the black jet with purple accents, to be reformatted into Cyclonus, a purple Cybertronian flying craft.

Toy placement

In the 1985 catalog there were 6 Decepticon jets, Starscream, Dirge, Ramjet, Thrust, Skywarp and Thundercracker. In the 1986 catalog, Skywarp and Thundercracker were replaced with Cyclonus and Scourge.

Loyalty

Skywarp was never shown to betray Megatron, whereas the Insecticons were famous for it. Cyclonus is intensely loyal to Galvatron, showing none of the disloyalty the Insecticons did.

DVD Releases

In several DVD releases of the movie, in special features it states that Skywarp becomes Cyclonus.

Japanese Continuity

Unlike with many western audiences, the Japanese take on the continuity has always been relatively free of debate. Indeed in the story Macrocosmic Seekers Cyclonus regresses and rediscovers the teleportation ability he once possessed as Skywarp. The bio for the latest Masterpiece Skywarp also states that he eventually becomes Cyclonus.

Replication

The Insecticons Clones have been shown to replicate. The Sweeps are also assumed to replicate, since no matter how many get destroyed (only 3 were initially created by Unicron in the movie) there always seems to be more. In the episode ‘Call of the Primitives’ one is heard to say ‘Sweeps 6 & 7 coming in for a strike’. Skywarp had a teleportation ability, not a cloning ability, so it makes no sense for him to have become a Sweep.

Sweeps & Insecticlones – you never run out of either.

InsectiClones, not InsectiCons.

The Insecticons were still in S3 of the cartoon

To muddy the waters even more, in my opinion, it makes much more sense for it to have been Insecticon Clones rather than the original trio. This is based on the Insecticons showing up further in the movie at later stages, as well as season 3 of the cartoon. Since Insecticon clones have never been shown to exist without in some way being connected to their projinators, it makes sense that it was Clones, not the Insecticons themselves that were reformatted. This again ties into the idea that this is why the Sweeps can replicate. From a sales standpoint, the Insecticons were still being sold in 1986, whereas Thundercracker and Skywarp had been discontinued, so it makes sense for the characters to have not been killed off before thier toys were.

Now I am aware that there are counterarguments to much of what I have cited, such as S3 of the cartoon is infamous for its animation errors. Kickback was shown getting gravely injured by Kup, so it only makes sense for him to have been thrown out of Astrotrain etc. Skywarp was way off in the background, so he is the one that became ‘Armada’. I’m sure a dedicated fan with some spare time could pick holes in much of what I have said. Like mentioned earlier, remember – there is no real answer, the whole debate is based on an animation error in a 38 year old movie designed to sell toys!

But Cyclonus becoming Skywarp? That makes the most sense to me 😉

Cyclonus: “Wait, some of you still think I was created from that little bug guy?!”

Do you agree, or are you adamant that it was Bombshell that became Cyclonus? State your theory in the comments section below!

Transformers Collection – Generation One Decepticons

Random Rants

Ghostbusters Movies: All 5 ranked from Worst to Best!

April 5, 2024 Big Angry Trev Leave a comment

The Ghostbusters franchise has been running for 40 years, with two hit movies in the 80’s, then introduced to a whole new generation with three more movies from 2016 onwards.

Unlike my Transformers Movie rankings where it was easy to rate all 8 movies in order from worst to best, I found this list of 5 Ghostbusters movies quite hard. There is a general consensus about what constitutes the worst Ghostbusters movie and which was the best, but the middle three could arguably be swapped around according to the individual viewers proclivities. So just because one movie is listed here at 4 and another at 2, there isn’t a gigantic gap between them.

So lets rank them – the 5 Ghostbusters Movies from Worst to Best!

Number 5 – Ghostbusters: Answer the Call (2016)

There is a contingent of fans who loved this movie and still do, and more power to them. Unfortunately for the movie itself, it came out during a year with a Presidential Election in the USA. When one candidate professed their delight at the upcoming movie and the other their disapproval, before it even hit cinemas the flick was dragged into a political culture war which gave it a handicap it didn’t deserve.

However, even observed dispassionately without the lense of US culture war politics, this was not a good movie. Ghostbusters movies are almost always comedies, but even in films where people get doused with liquefied Marshmallow Man or Mood Slime, the jokes have always been more character and situation driven. Answer the Call treated the franchise like one long SNL sketch, trying to play each scene for big laughs which inevitably always fell flat. The characters were one dimensional and uninteresting, the CGI was cartoony, the plot uninspired and overall this felt like a parody of the Ghostbusters franchise instead of a reboot. The majority of fans didn’t like it, and neither did the film critics, resulting in a poor box office showing.

There was the odd highlight here and there; the characters of Erin Gilbert and Jillian Holtzmann were amusing on occasion, and the idea of Ghostbusting knuckle-dusters was an interesting concept. The movie did try to pay homage to what had come before, with cameos by many of the original cast as well as Slimer and Ecto-1. But none of this was able to save what was a poorly executed and lampoonish take on a beloved franchise. At least the comics have retroactively made Answer the Call a different universe from the original, thereby placating some of the more rabid fans who saw it as a stain on the Ghostbusters cinematic legacy.

Pictorial Toys Review – My Little Prime & Plasmane

Number 4 – Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (2024)

(If you have not yet seen this movie then spoilers ahead – you’ve been warned!)

Now remember at the start when I said spots 2, 3 & 4 could be swapped around according to your proclivities, and also when I said Ghostbusters movies are almost always comedies? Well if comedies are your thing then Frozen Empire could easily be moved up from it’s 4^th spot into 3^rd, being a far funnier film than Ghostbusters: Afterlife.

The latest film of the franchise serves as a sequel to Afterlife and the 4^th film of the original universe. This movie is a true blend of the original cast and the newest characters, and whilst the focus of the movie remains on Pheobe and the other descendants of Egon Spengler, the like of Ray and Winston get a proper outing and there are plenty of side characters to enjoy.

This film runs at a good pace, has lots of laughs threaded throughout, plenty of action and does it’s best to bring the Ghostbusters franchise into the 21^st century. Add to that a splash of other original characters such as Peter, Janine and Slimer and a new bad guy who can control other ghosts as well as literally turn fear into ice, and you’ve got yourself one entertaining movie!

Movie Review – Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire

Where this movie lets itself down is trying to cram in too much. There are some side plots that don’t go anywhere and seem to have only been included so that all the members of the huge cast have something to do, whereas other side plots take up a ton of screen time for very little payoff. The stakes never feel particularly high – even Walter Peck shutting down the Ghostbusters is solved in mere moments with the picking of a padlock and a van full of new equipment arriving. And whilst all the movies are about ghosts, they always approached the spiritual realm from more of a scientific standpoint than magical, thus the inclusion of someone who can bend fire like they are out of an Avatar cartoon feels as out of place as aliens did in the Indiana Jones franchise.

All this said, it is still a really fun movie, and perhaps the most funny we’ve had since the 1980’s. While fans on the internet are still divided on how they feel about this latest installation of the franchise, if you love Ghostbusters it’s highly recommended that you get to your nearest cinema while it is still showing.

Number 3 – Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021)

If you watch Ghostbusters primarily for a laugh, then shift this movie down your personal list to at least Number 4. However if you love the franchise as a whole, then Ghostbusters: Afterlife is the movie that is going to tug at your heartstrings and make you go ‘The world still remembers!’

Afterlife is, more than anything, a love letter to the original movies and the departed Harold Ramis. It is set decades after the events of Ghostbusters 2, with the Ghostbusters being disbanded by Egon Spengler having abandoned the team to live on a dirt farm in order to prevent the latest coming of Gozer. However we find all this out via, after the subsequent death of Egon at the start of the film, his estranged daughter and her family coming to pick through the remnants of his life.

The star of the movie is Pheobe Spengler, Egon’s granddaughter and the similarities between the characters are played up from the get-go. She is an awkward but incredibly endearing character and she is guided by the ghost of her Grandfather to thwart Gozer once again, along with the help of her family and some new friends. We see Ecto-1 resurrected along with all the old equipment Egon scarpered with, a good analogy for the original Ghostbusters cinematic universe being dusted off and made use of once again This film also contains a million Easter Eggs for fans – everything from the dancing toaster to Egon’s collection of Spores, Mould and Fungus!

This movie has funny parts, mainly provided by the interactions between Pheobe and her new friend Podcast, but it is much more of a nostalgic drama, thematically setting it apart from the rest of the movies.

Movie Review – Ghostbusters: Afterlife

What let this movie down more than anything, besides not a lot of busting going on, was the return of Gozer. In the original Gozer was exciting – controlling things from afar through his Keymaster and Gatekeeper only to eventually appear itself on a rooftop in New York, nearly blasting the Ghosbusters off said rooftop with lightning and then turning into The Destructor – in this case a gigantic Marshmallow Man! In this newest outing Gozer is already a known quantity, sits about in a cave when summoned and then has a less than thrilling fight with the Ghostbusters – both old and new. No rooftop lightning or candy-based kaiju here. The movie was stuffed with nostalgia already, it really needed a new baddie to fight to give it that fresh feel as well.

However it is this last fight that also really tugs on the hearstrings more than anything. The ghost of Egon Spengler materializes to help his granddaughter fight Gozer, and then does so alongside the other original Ghostbusters – Ray, Winston and Peter. Watching the four onscreen together for the first time since 1989 was by far the biggest tearjerker in Ghostbuters history, especially given that Harold Ramis passed many years ago. Even my wife who is just a casual fan of the franchise had tears in her eyes and I’m not sure I’ve ever shed so many watching a film myself since Optimus Prime died back in 1986.

So is this a great comedy? No. Is it startlingly original? No. What it served as was a perfect link between what Ghostbusters had been, what it had meant to the fandom, and what it could become moving into the future.

Number 2 – Ghostbusters 2 (1989)

If you are after a drama-themed and streamlined plot, Afterlife is better. If you are after a fast paced movie with lots of intertwining subplots and individual character arcs then Frozen Empire is better. If you are after awesome Ghostbusting action combined with hilarious cast interactions, then Ghostbusters 2 beats all the new movies hands down!

Ghosbusters 2 had Bill Murray and Rick Moranis at what could be argued were their comedic peaks. Combine those with the stellar performances of Harold Ramis, Ernie Hudson, Annie Potts, Sigorny Weaver and Dan Ackroyd – all from the first movie – and the highly underrated performance of Peter MacNicol as a new bad guy, and this brilliant ensemble of actors simply blow away anything that has come since in the Ghostbusters franchise. Nadeem and Podcast might be funny supporting characters, but they have nothing on Luis Tully. The interactions between the Spengler family might be interesting, but they pale in comparison when compared to the banter between the four original Ghostbusters.

Now this is not to say this movie was perfect, it was far from so. Despite having a new bad guy in the form of Vigo (cue angry man in painting) and his lackey Janosz, this movies plot mirrored the first flick far too much: Ghostbusters getting their business going (again), Peter pursuing Dana, the guys getting locked up by a mid-level government official only to be summoned and pardoned by the Mayor, then capped off by a giant figure stomping down the street. It’s like Ackroyd and Ramis went ‘Hey the first movie was a hit, lets just do that again!’.

Still, there was enough new stuff in this movie to make it entertaining, and the aforementioned fantastic cast make this a beloved part of the franchise.

Toy Review – Ectotron

Number 1 – Ghostbusters (1984)

“Who ya gonna call?”

A true pop-culture icon of a movie! A behemoth of sci-fi comedy! The film that has inspired 40 years worth of movies, cartoons, comics and toylines. The original Ghostbusters is still the best and still eminently watchable to this day. The storyline, the pacing, the jokes, the scares, the dialogue, the characters – everything about this movie works, everything!

I didn’t care much for the joke where Luis Tully gets dragged down the glass window of the restaurant, then all the music and talking starts up again. That’s it – that’s the entirety of things I can personally nitpick about this film – I have nothing else. Well, maybe all the cigarette smoking too, but it was the 80’s, you were hard pressed to find a movie or even TV show where half the characters didn’t smoke.

I was too young to see it at the cinemas so had to wait for it to be aired on TV and I still remember the excitement of watching it, even getting in trouble with my mother for telling the rest of the family off any time someone made a noise. This movie is full of iconic scenes, everything from the Library Ghost to the catching of Slimer, right up to the final showdown with a giant Marshmallow Man. And what other movie could make a giant Marshmallow Man not seem completely ridiculous? There are so many quotable lines in this movie; ‘What about the Twinkie?’ ‘I collect spores, mould and fungus’, ‘Are you a god?’ and of course ‘Yes its true, this man has no dick’.

It’s hard to critique a movie one loves so much and feels so passionately about. But perhaps it is a testament to how good the original Ghostbusters is that even in my own family, if asked if they would like to watch a GB movie that my wife, son and daughter will always want to watch the original above all others, and no one ever complains that we’ve seen it a hundred times before – we just grab the popcorn, plunk ourselves on the couch and prepare to be thoroughly entertained for the next few hours. This movie has a worldwide cult following and even 40 years later remains one of the most beloved films of its genre, helped by having perhaps the most catchy movie theme song in history.

“They’re the best, they’re the beautiful, they’re the only – Ghostbusters”

Would you list the Ghostbusters films in a different order? Pop it in the comments section below!

Transformers Movies: All 8 ranked from Worst to Best!

Fan Interviews & Art, Random Rants

Matilda Poole live on The Big DJ Trev 3rd anniversary show!

December 16, 2023 Big Angry Trev Leave a comment

Many’s the star who can attribute the moment their career really took flight to being a guest on The Big DJ Trev Show on Krr.fm. Whether it be Bernie Pogston, Flannel Devine or the Splooten Triplets – all those household names you adore can attribute their success to being given the Big DJ Trev boost. Even as recently as October this year, we were very happy to bring you an Aussie Radio first by playing the newest album by Cybertronic Spree.

Album Review – Respect The Prime 1986 Revisited

Also, as regular listeners would know, we always have some entertaining guests and do something a bit special for our anniversary shows. And never more than what we have planned for this year for The Big DJ Trev 3^rd Anniversary Show!

This Thursday the 21^st of December, we are very excited to be able to bring you an extremely talented young woman, an up-and-comer who has all the qualities to make it big – Ms Matilda Poole.

Photo’s provided by Matilda’s publicist Petrina

Here are a few words from the artist:

My name is Matilda Poole, I’m a local singer-songwriter and live music performer in the mid-west region, and I’ve just recently won the Mid-West Music Quest.

Most of my weekends consist of performing multiple gigs around Mudgee, Rylstone, Gulgong, and Dubbo, and sharing my love of music with everyone I can.

I’m 17 years old, and I have been singing since before I could talk, however my solo musical career performing and playing gigs began almost 5 years ago, when I auditioned for “Vocal Stars” and received the Gold Package.

Within the last six months, I’ve performed over 30 gigs, and to thousands of people, and I can’t wait to share my music with the KRR.fm listeners on The Big DJ Trev Show!

Not only is Matilda a talented singer, she is also a talented actor & dancer and one of the nicest young people I have had the pleasure of directing upon the stage. Tilda recently played a starring role in the latest Kandos production of ABBA: The Musical, acquitting herself superbly to the delight of the enraptured audience.

Did I teach her everything she knows? Probably. Did I teach her everything I know? Of course not – that would make her too dangerous to live!

So tune in from 6pm this Thursday to hear Matilda Poole singing live on The Big DJ Trev 3^rd Anniversary show on KRR.fm.

Ask Trev – What’s it like being a Radio Star?

Random Rants, Random Reviews

Movie Review – Transformers: Rise of the Beasts

June 11, 2023 Big Angry Trev 1 Comment

After a 5 year absence of giant shape changing alien robots in theatres, Transformers Rise of the Beasts has hit cinemas worldwide June 9^th. Thanks to the generosity of Hasbro and Paramount Pictures, some of us lucky folk even got to attend Special Preview Showings on Thursday 8^th, being able to quench our thirst for Autobot antics a day early.

Even Mirage got invited to his own flick! Love Hasbro & Paramount putting on these special events!

Warning, this is a Movie Review – so SPOILERS!

One of the main complaints of the live action Transformer films is having to wait around for ages to finally see some robots. No such complaint can be made here. One of the main groups of protagonists – The Maximals, and the main antagonists – The Terrorcons and their gigantic master Unicron, are introduced at the outset, setting the stage for much mayhem to come. We are also introduced to the Allspark Matrix Control Pillar Seed Staff of Merlin Transwarp Key, a… glowy thingie… which will be used as an excuse for robots to travel to Earth, trapse all over the globe and fight each other to obtain it.

I can eat whole planets – but can be defeated by the lack of a glowy thing the size of your forearm

And then of course we transfer to the obligatory human characters and their backstories. Firstly Noah Diaz, an ex-solider who is about to embark on a life of crime in order to support his younger brother who, I dunno, has a pain in his hand or something. And Elena Wallace, an undervalued researcher in a museum. So yes, we have humans but good news – there is no romantic subplot! That’s right folks, a live action Transformers movie with no romantic awkwardness between teens or overt sexualization of young women – can I get an amen!

We are never scantiy dressed or sexually attracted to each other – are we sure this is a Transformers movie?

Anyways, these humans need to meet the Transformers for the plot to advance, so Noah tries to steal Mirage, police chase ensues, they escape and we get introduced to the bulk of the Autobot cast. Brooding Optimus & perky Bumblebee, the mainstays of the movie series are on hand with Arcee, returning for her third outing, combining her robot look from the Bumblebee movie with her motorcycle altmode from ROTF. But its Mirage who takes the staring role both in this scene and for much of the movie (oh thank you, thank you Primus for not making yet another movie all about Bumblebee and Optimus again!).

Lets take a look at Mirage shall we. Originally in Generation One the character was a blue & white Autobot Warrior, a member of the upper class who wants the war over so as to return to his lavish lifestyle on Cybertron, who could turn into an Indy Racer as well as cloak himself with invisibility.

‘A giant robot race car that can cloak? I rock!’

Here he seems to be a pastiche of other G1 Transformer characters. He has the youthful exuberance of Hot Rod, the altmode of Jazz and the holographic powers of Hound. That said, at least there is some resemblance to previous incarnations there.

Mirage also seems to be able to turn into anything. Yes I know that’s the point of Transformers, that they can change their forms, but Mirage can change into most anything on a whim. In short order he transforms into a Porsche, a Lamborghini and an Indy Racer (in an homage to his G1 counterpart). Yup, all cars approximating his mass and size, so what’s the problem? No problem as such yet, but a short time later he transforms into a garbage truck bigger than Prime himself, and near the end an exo-suit for Noah which is not much bigger than the human. By making Mirage seemingly able to be anything, it waters down the specialness of the transforming ability in general.

Wait, wasn’t I like 100 times bigger only an hour ago in the movie?

It isn’t long before, in pursuit of the glowy key thingie, the Autobots meet the Terrorcons, with much fighting and general violence taking place. Thankfully for the franchise it learned from Dropkick and Shatter from the last flick as in a few fleshed out bad guys can prove more interesting than an army of generic ones (don’t worry, that happens later too). Scourge, the Terrorcon leader and main Herald of Unicron, is powerful and commanding enough as the main villain, though can’t be said to be breaking new ground – at least he comes with a couple of deployable Freezer minions. Battletrap is pretty cool, using chains with clamps and wrecking balls on the end in both his modes to hurt his opponents, often using the environment around him to help smash his foes. Nightbird can fly to provide her group air support, she also produces her signature swords near the end of the movie but doesn’t do much with them.

I will use the one ring to rule you all!

The glowy thingie is found, but oh no! It got all broke up and now we need to find the second half! Cue off to Peru, courtesy of Stratosphere, a pretty cool old transport plane character. They meet up with Pablo Wheeljack who has an idea where the second half may be. There we see the Autobots actually using their ‘robots in disguise’ moniker by hiding around the city in vehicle mode while the humans do their thing. Then off to the jungle where the Maximals are hiding out where they are most definitely not robots in disguise. Don’t get me wrong, they look cool. But they are all way bigger than the animals they are supposed to be disguised as (the glowing eyes don’t help much either). Maximals and Autobots team up, get their arses kicked, the glowy thing is put back together and thus the final act is underway. The transwarp portal is opened, allowing Unicron to come and chow down on Earth.

‘Wait, you can tell that I’m not an Earth-gorilla? How?!’

But things don’t happen that fast. Despite the transwarp portal castle thing materializing in seconds, it takes a long time for the portal to open enough for Unicron, so even though Airazor is now dead and Bumblebee near death himself, the remaining bots go to stop the portal opening, Optimus and Noah learning the magic of friendship (or something) and trusting each other. Here we get the big final battle, with all the good guys who survived near dying at some point but never quite managing it, while the bad guys (along with the promised hordes of weaker bad guys to go smashy smashy on) get their comeuppance. Cue some post battle scenes and that’s a wrap folks.

Movie Review – Bumblebee

So yes, the plot is very formulaic and nothing you haven’t seen in a hundred other flicks. So is this movie worth watching?

Yes, yes it is! This is actually to my mind the best live action Transformers movie to date, as well as being the most fun! The majority of robots are treated like actual characters, receiving their fair share of screen time and character development, not simply murderbots to show up to kill each other between prolonged human scenes. Speaking of, they finally seem to have struck the right balance for robot-to-human screen time – it’s a Transformers movie with actual Transformers!

We are in the film! We are in the film lots!

The only time I got sick of the squishies was the final battle scene; a huge stunning battle taking place with the Maximals and Autobots fighting the Terrorcons and a legion of their minions while Unicron decends from above, and they halt the action for two full minutes for Noah to have a heart-to-heart with his brother over a walkie-talkie?! Shut the hell up Noah – we want to see the robots fight! This did detract from the exo-suit scene for me, as I was all pissed off with Noah ruining the flow, but thankfully times like this in the movie were rare – no 10 minute scenes of Sam Witwicky having a mental meltdown in class, followed by talking about how a kiss had a deisely tinge to it. The pacing of the movie is spot on, keeping you entertained without things going so fast you don’t know what’s happening, the humour gives you a few genuine laughs without it ever sinking into the gutter, in short this movie seems to have listened to all the fan gripes about the first 5 movies and rectified them, producing a fun and entertaining flick about our favourite giant, shape-changing alien robots!

I give Transformers Rise of the Beasts 9 out of 10 stolen Autobot badges.

Have you seen this movie? What did you think of it? Leave your thoughts in the comments section below.

Movie Review – Transformers: The Last Knight

Random Rants, Transformatorium

The ROTB Wheeljack Controversy

May 10, 2023 Big Angry Trev Leave a comment

There is only about a month to go until the new Transformers Rise of the Beasts film hits theatres and the hype is building, with everything from toy lines hitting shelves to art exhibitions taking place to celebrate the upcoming flick.

MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE EXHIBITION

However, it wouldn’t be a Transformers movie without there being something contentious to make the fandom all scream at each other, and in this case it’s the design of Wheeljack.

Wheeljack, the very first Transformer to ever hit screen, was the Autobots mad-scientist, always coming up with whacky inventions and weapons that more often than not backfired. This combined with his distinctive headscuplt, easy-going personality and slick Lancia Stratos Turbo race car alt-mode meant that he was a fan favourite and one of the better known Transformer characters.

Wheeljack nearly appeared in the Dark of the Moon Transformers movie, but the decision was made at the last second to call the character ‘Que’ instead, as an homage to James Bond’s gadget guy. Still, this decision was made so late that some toys and in the associated video game the character was still called Wheeljack.

‘Hey, it could be worse – I could look like this in the new movie!’

Wheeljack made his proper live-movie appearance in the Bumblebee Movie. Whilst he had but a single line, he could be seen battling on Cybertron at the start of the flick and was instantly recognisable. Despite being on screen for a very short amount of time, he received a very cool Studio Series figure which had an altmode of a Cybertronian HoverCar, instead of the Cybertronian HoverVan mode he had in the G1 cartoon.

In the upcoming Rise of the Beasts movie, a sequel to the Bumblebee flick, Wheeljack has completely changed from the previous film, with a completely different robot mode and altmode to any he has sported before. Some fans are really not happy, with other fans really not happy that those fans are not happy.

So where does my opinion lie in all this? Well let me tell you:

Toy Review – Studio Series Airazor

“Don’t be a slave to G1, don’t be a sook – characters change!”

This is the argument that a lot of fans are giving to those that don’t like the look of the new Wheeljack. And I think they’ve got the argument slightly wrong. I believe it’s not that people are annoyed that this incarnation of Wheeljack in not a carbon copy of his G1 incarnation, it’s that he’s not really recognisable as Wheeljack at all.

People, for the most part unless they are the most staunch geewunners (which do sadly exist), don’t mind some changes to characters, as long as they retain some key essence of the original. It keeps the characters fresh and interesting. Fans had no issue with Wheeljack being a Wrecker with a rebellious personality in Prime (2010). Wheeljack having a country accent and a mouth in Cyberverse (2018) and the new Earthspark (2022) cartoon have also been received without complaint. Despite some changes these incarnations were still instantly recognisable as Wheeljack, due to either their physical appearance and/or personality. This incarnation doesn’t look, act or sound like Wheeljack (that we’ve seen thus far – who knows what may happen in the film). So I completely understand why some fans are going ‘Why not just make it a new character instead of completely changing an old one?’.

These WERE the droids you were hoping for

To use an example from a different pop-culture franchise – it’s like Batman; there are dozens of different iterations of Batman with varying costumes and personalities, but you can generally pick up a comic or see a movie and still go ‘yep – that’s Batman’.

All slightly different in looks and personality – but all still definetly Batman.

No one is demanding that every Batman look like Adam West, they just want it to still be recognisable as the character. If they did a comic where Batman was actually a 6’10” Slavic insurance-claims adjuster who lives in Brisbane, and at night throws rubber ducks at criminals whilst making poultry-puns, people would be like ‘WTF? That’s not Batman!’

If we were to use a Transformers character such as Grimlock, we see the pattern repeated. He is usually a grey Cybertronian T-Rex with a rebellious attitude. But we have seen different versions of him over the years. In the Alternators toyline he turned into a Ford Mustang, in Titanium a Cybertronian tank, in Rescue Bots Academy a Dino-cycle, in Age of Extinction a Gigantic Rex-Dragon. In the RID15 Cartoon he was back to being a Cybertronian T-Rex again, but now green with a teddy-bear like head and a goofy personality.

All slightly different in looks, personality and altmodes, but all still Grimlock.

Each of these differed greatly from the core G1 character, but there was still enough recognisable elements that you could look and go ‘yup – that’s Grimlock’.

‘There have been different Wheeljacks before – they reuse names all the time, get over it!’

Yes, lots of characters got their names reused in Beast Wars, then again in early 00’s in shows like RID & Armada, but those were generally exceptions where they just randomly used names in order to keep the trademark. Wheeljack in Armada was a bitter Autobot that swapped allegiance, and besides a car altmode had nothing to do with the original. Similarly Grimlock, whom we were discussing earlier, turned into a excavator in RID and had zero connection to the original character. So the precedents are there.

One of these Grim’s is not like the other ones…

That being said, Hasbro has taken a far more uniform approach to their characters in the modern era and, outside of the Movieverse, these aberrations have happened very little over the last 15 or so years.

So am I going to boycott the movie because Wheeljack is essentially unrecognisable? No – I’m still looking forward to it! And for all I know I might really like the character on the big screen and go out and buy the SS figure of him. But do I understand why some fans have a beef with how he is being portrayed – yes I do.

Causing more mixed feelings in fandom than a female Ghostbuster

So my 2-cents are: if you don’t like how you think the ROTB Wheeljack looks/acts/sounds – go watch the movie next month and see if he grows on you. Heck, he might be good enough that he earns a right to simply share the name, like G1 and Beast Wars Inferno do.

To those who have a problem with others disappointment in what the character looks like so far, give’em a break eh – it can be a bit heartbreaking to see a character you’ve loved for years changed beyond recognition for no obviously discernable reason. But yes, when you’ve read the 50^th ‘they’ve destroyed the character!’ rant, I can understand how your patience would wane.

Can the Transformers fandom just chill out a bit?

And my final words are – it’s all just toys and movies, don’t take it so seriously, just have fun!

Got an opinion on the whole Wheeljackgate? Pop it in the comments section below!

Random Rants, Tales of the Trev

How a Bad Airline ruined a Good Holiday

February 17, 2023 Big Angry Trev Leave a comment

This is the tale of how a bad airline can really f*ck up a good holiday.

This is the 100% true and factual recount of how it took us 8 hours to get from home to our destination, yet FIFTY FOUR AND A HALF HOURS to get home. All with two small children in tow.

We were travelling from rural New South Wales to have a holiday with relatives in northern Queensland. This meant a 3 hour drive to the airport, catching a flight from Newcastle to Cairns, then being picked up by our relatives and driven the rest of the way.

Getting There

We were booked with Jetstar (never again!) for both there and back and booked well in advance. Firstly we had booked a flight that left at noon, then only a week out they cancelled the flight and rebooked us on one over 3 hours later. A pain but we could handle it, it just meant missing out on part of our first day of holidays. We drove to the airport, leaving the requisite time to check in and reach our gate. When getting close to the airport I kept getting alerts on my phone about the Gate being changed, which happened about 3 times.

When we got into the terminal, we saw our flight had been delayed by a solid 90 minutes, which meant we had to entertain our kids in the terminal for an extra hour and a half. Funny how they never sent a phone alert about that. Because we ended up flying out 4 ½ hours later than we had booked for, it meant our relatives had to pick us up after dark and we totally missed out on our first day of holidays.

Kids truding to their first of MANY delayed JetStar flights

Getting Back

Jetstar guarantee’s on their website that all children will be seated with their parents/adult relatives. I checked our seats online the night before we were due to fly out and surprise surprise, they had sat our 9 year old son and 7 year old daughter in individual seats by themselves in different parts of the plane, well away both from each other and my wife and I. Two hours of trying to sort it out online resulted in a “get to the airport early and have the staff there sort it out” reply from Jetstar – thanks so much., how very efficient and customer friendly of you.

So we arrive at the airport a solid two hours before we would have had to be there otherwise, and spend a stupid amount of time with the staff until they can ensure our kids are sitting with us. We then have a LOT of time to kill at the terminal.

Half an hour before we were due to fly out, they announce that – once again – our flight has been delayed by 90 minutes! So now we have even more time to kill, and have two very understandably grumpy kids.

Finally, after being at the airport for about four hours, we board the plane and take off from Cairns to Newcastle. Getting to the end of the flight, and I mean right at the end -they had announced our descent 10 minutes previously and the seatbelt sign was on – the captain comes on:

“Please be aware that we have received a storm warning and all flights to Sydney and Newcastle are being diverted to Brisbane”

The groan in the plane was audible, and much muttering and bad language ensued from the passengers. We could SEE the airport from out of the window, there was nary a cloud in the sky! There might be a storm on the way but it certainly wasn’t there yet! We had been less than 3 minutes from landing!

So the plane turns around and we have another hour of flight to reach Brisbane.

Son: ‘Will this flight ever end Dad?’ Me: ‘I don’t know son, I just don’t know’

We get off the plane. I’ve commented on how I’m more ‘Middle-aged Tired Trev’ than ‘Big Angry Trev’ these days, well, not by then. Anyone official not being immediately helpful was not abused, but certainly spoken to sharply in loud irritated tones. I didn’t go full Karen, but by Primus I wanted to.

My family finds some seats, and I get in the line for the desk that is arranging transport to hotels the airline has booked. I was in this line for ONE AND THREE-QUARTER HOURS! I have never been in a line that long in my life! By the time I reached the front I was ropeable! Thankfully my wife came up and did the talking to the girl behind the desk as I was standing back and audibly swearing. The girl told me not to abuse her to which I replied in an aggravated tone “I wasn’t swearing at you or about you or even looking at you so how about you just get on with it”. To be fair she was just doing her job, but she had a JetStar pin on her blazer which made her the enemy at this point. I did however stop swearing and just simmered in relative silence behind my wife.

A full hour after this they finally bus us to a hotel. We had left our resort at 7.30am, and it was now 8.30pm. 11 hours of travel and we hadn’t even managed to get out of the State! Our kids are tired and hungry, we are tired and hungry. My wife gets the kids in the shower and finds some children’s programming on the TV while I walk the streets of Brisbane trying to find a takeaway shop open.

“What the hell am I doing in Brisbane?!”

By the time we went to bed we had eaten nothing but Airport Terminal food and some pizza slices and potato cakes for dinner. We get a message from the airport that our replacement flight will be leaving at 2PM TOMORROW AFTERNOON.

The next day they bus picks us at noon and thankfully this flight was only running 15 minutes late this time. However when we get back to Newcastle and collect our car, we find out that the road we would have used to go home is washed out from the overnight storm. So instead of a 3 hour drive home, we drive 4 ½ hours to my mothers-in-law’s in Bathrust. We reach there exhausted at about 9.30pm that night. We are now 38 hours into our trip home and yet still hours away from our house.

We wake up the next morning, repack the car and prepare to head off. Only one problem, one MAJOR problem. The Bathurst 1000, one of the biggest car races in the country, had been on over the weekend, and now they were finished every man and his dog was heading home, with most of them towing caravans. One of the bridges that served as an exit point to the town was underwater from the storm, so everyone is trying to get out of Bathurst using the same route. The whole town is gridlocked! We kept checking the traffic app every 15 minutes, but it is still noon by the time it lets up enough we can get in the car and start our final leg.

The drive from our mothers-in-law’s to our place takes maybe 20 minutes longer than usual as another bridge in our little home town is washed out from the storm two nights ago, so we had to take a detour to get to our farm. By the time we drive in the front gate we had been travelling for 54 ½ hours! We were exhausted and beaten and after unpacking the car collapsed as a family on our couch.

Since then we have vowed to never fly JetStar again unless absolutely necessary. We are realists, we realise that sometimes flight delays are inevitable and things happen out of the airlines control. But from some rudimentary online searching subsequent to this trip, I’ve found Jetstar is notorious for late flights, more so than most other airlines. On multiple websites they rate only a 1 Star average from thousands of customer reviews.

It was bad enough that we missed the first day of our holiday because they cancelled our booked flight, then delayed our rebooked flight by 90 minutes. But if they had just left when they were supposed to on the flight home, all our troubles could have been avoided. If they had even just landed when they were supposed to (I swear you could see the people on the ground we were so far into our final approach) instead of turning around despite the storm still not having arrived, all our troubles could have been avoided. But because they were running late, and because they couldn’t be bothered landing a plane which was moments from touchdown, by the time we reached our State the storms had actually arrived and washed out the highways we would normally take to our home.

As far as I’m concerned, Jetstar can fornicate themselves vigorously with a pointed stick. No wonder in 2017 an international survey ranked Jetstar as the worlds worst airline. In my opinion a truly inept company on every level. It would give me great joy to hear some irate baggage handler rammed some lost luggage up their CEO’s arse.

Have you had a bad experience with Jetstar? Pop it in the comments below!

Random Rants

The Secret Post-Election Liberal’s Meeting

May 24, 2022 Big Angry Trev Leave a comment

With the Coalition losing the 2022 Australian federal election in a landslide, it is no wonder that the Liberal Party is in major damage control. In fact the chaos at their main headquarters is such that one of our ace reporters – Pastor Fazool – was able to sneak in and write a transcript of a secret meeting that has taken place in the last 24 hours:

“So, they think we ‘lost the election’, eh? We’ll see about that! Cormann, summon my Death Squads!“

“Mr Cormann’s gone, Mr Dutton, sir. We sent him off to be Secretary General of the OECD. It was enormously expensive.”

“What?!”

“I’m shredding the documents now sir, in case of that ICAC, sir.”

“Fine! Porter, YOU are Second-in-Command now! Bring me my Death Squads!”

“Mr Porter’s gone too sir. I’m shredding all those documents as well.”

“Untenable! Bring me Frydenberg then, he’s a weak-wristed wimp but he’ll have to do!”

“He’s gone too sir. Angus Taylor’s office is shredding HIS documents, they were quite insistent that they be the ones to do it. Mr Taylor is shredding the ones from when Mr Frydenberg was Environment Minister personally sir…”

“Hisssss! Fool, what have I told you about using the ‘E’ word?! You know it burns!”

“Sorry sir.”

Ask Trev – Who should I vote for in the Federal Election?

“Fine, Tudge then!”

“No-one can find him sir. The only time anyone’s seen him over the past 6 months has been when he did some Chinese radio interview. We think he may have been kidnapped, possibly defected, sir.”

“How about that Deves woman? She may only have been a mere female but she had a certain style, I was thinking of having her run the Puppy Smelter…”

“She didn’t get in, sir.”

“Curses! Well, who IS left, then? Not Scotty obviously, I never trusted that lying hypocrite. Complete psycho, horrible horrible man – he never laughed at any of my jokes!”

“No, sir. Yes, sir. Simon Birmingham’s still here sir.”

“That chinless freak! NEVER! Who else?”

“Ross Vasta?”

“…who?”

“Quite, sir. Bridget Archer has expressed interest in helping out…”

“I’m warning you you poncing public service peon, if you dare mock me again…!”

“Sorry sir. Well, there’s always…no, I’m sorry sir, forget I said anything…”

“Out with it, fool!”

“There’s…there’s Stuart Robert, sir.”

“…”

Alien Robot to be Barnaby Joyce’s new assistant

“I’m sorry sir, we lost a LOT of seats…”

“Fuck it, I’ll lead the attack myself. Slave, summon my Death Squads, we march on Kirribilli House at once!”

“Um, sir, you don’t HAVE any Death Squads anymore. We lost Government sir, we’d have to pay for our OWN Death Squads now and we’ve had Mr Frydenberg in charge of our finances for the past four years, with Mr Cormann doing the accounts before that. We’re broke, sir, worse than broke. I asked Malcolm Turnbull if he could spot us a few million dollars again but he just laughed at me. A lot. Then he hung up, sir.”

-angry potato noises-

Thank you Pastor for that behind the scenes look at Liberal HQ.

The Playmate and the PM: Anderson vs Morrison

Random Rants, Random Reviews, Tales of the Trev

Househusband Tales #11 – The most Annoying Bird in Literature!

November 21, 2021 Big Angry Trev Leave a comment

Books are awesome! Nothing better than a good book!

I’ve always loved reading, as has my wife. We’ve been reading to our kids every day, as well as before bed, since they were born so they have developed a love of reading too. Our son has reached the age that he now reads to himself after we say goodnight and during the lockdown we let him stay up late in bed to read his favourite books.

Our daughter however still much prefers to be read to than read herself, though her skills improve every day. Like all kids she’s got some particular favourites that she wants to have read to her again and again…

…and again.

I never thought I could get sick of Cat in the Hat but damn I’d like to grab that hat, pull it all the way down to his feet and then toss that trouble-making feline in a river! Our daughter loves books under the Dr. Seuss banner and night after night we work our way through her extensive library of them. Books beloved from my childhood have now become a chore to read, yet none so more than friggin Go, Dog. Go!

What a fucking pain in the arse this book is! Written by P.D Eastman under the Seuss banner it follows Dogs… er… doing things. Sitting on a house. Sitting under a house. Dogs going in. Dogs going out. You get the picture. And whilst I can appreciate that the book is good for beginning readers to read themselves, its gruelling to get through as an adult when you are reading it to your kid for the 50^th time in a row.

And no one is more of a pain in the arse in the book than this fucking bird:

Let me set the scene. A bunch of dog are, naturally, driving their cars:

Hey dogs? Ever hear of leaving two car spaces between you and the car in front?

The dogs are approaching an intersection, going hell for leather. There isn’t a single other car on the road. There is however a prick of a bird walking down the center of the road for some damn reason instead of using the footpath:

Now the bird sets off the traffic light and stands there in the middle of the damn intersection, yelling at the dogs to stop! Nearly causes a multi-vehicle pile up in doing so! The sense of entitlement in this action is Karen-worthy!:

Then the little fucking bastard, after causing all this hassle, walks off down the road, giving permission to the dogs to go again. Look at the expression on those dogs! You can tell they want to jump out of their cars and maul the bird to death and I wouldn’t blame them:

Not only should this bird not be walking down the middle of a road meant for cars, let alone standing in the middle of an intersection yelling instructions at the motorists, but why the fuck doesn’t he just fly?! He’s a goddamn bird!

I swear, if ever they invent a way for people to enter books I wont be going into a Harry Potter novel to do a ‘Voldermort’s got no nose, how does he smell?’ joke at the evil one, no. I’ll go into Go, Dog. Go! and wring that birds scrawny neck.

Fuck I hate that bird.

Related Articles:

Househusband Tales #3 – The Library Playgroup

Househusband Tales #6 – The Power of the Platter!

Househusband Tales #8 – Star Charts

Random Rants, Transformatorium

Local newspaper covers The Big DJ Trev Show

September 24, 2021 Big Angry Trev Leave a comment

As most of you would know by now, I have a weekly radio show. The Big DJ Trev Show airs every Thursday night from 6 to 9pm on krrfm.org.au

Well Community Capers –the Rylstone-Kandos district newsletter – asked if they could write a short piece about me in my role as a ‘local radio personality’ for their publication. And what a callous sod would I be to disappoint my adoring fans, so I readily agreed.

Enjoy the short article from Community Capers (Octoboer issue 2021, Volume 274), which talks about my Transformatorium almost as much as it talks about my show!

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Spider kills Snake – the media storm hits!

Redback Spider kills Blind Snake – television news report

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Random Rants

The ‘Words with Friends’ Scammers

August 23, 2021 Big Angry Trev 46 Comments

In these uncertain times, when so much of our country is locked down due to the pandemic, there is one thing that remains a constant, one thing that you can rely on. And that is people are still going to try to scam you.

Internet-related Phone Scams

My wife received a call only yesterday, oddly enough from a person with a very strong overseas accent, telling her they were from the NBN and that she needed to download software to optimize our internet speed. When queried several times why this call was not coming from our actual internet service provider (we live in the bush – no sign of the NBN anywhere near us yet) they just kept saying ‘Because of lockdown’.

I often get calls on both our home phone and my mobile and its always the same. Someone with an accent that sounds like it’s been gargling curry, telling me that they are from Telstra and that our computer is infected. It is imperative that I download software to kill the virus immediately! What seems to stump them every time is when I ask them what my name is. I mean, they rang me, surely they should know shouldn’t they? When on the home phone they always give the name of the relatives we inherited the number from 5 years ago. On the mobile they simply hang up. Poor, poor research skills from the scammers.

E-Mail Scams

There are too many and they are too prolific to list! Everything from that my Foxtel details need to be updated (we don’t have Foxtel) to a Nigerian Prince wants to send me a few hundred million dollars, if only I will send him $6000 for the transfer fee’s first. Seriously – how many decades have some of these scam’s been running for?!

The Latest Scam – Words with Friends

That’s right ladies and gentleman, scammers have now discovered that innocent little Scrabble App that lets you match wits with your buddies using your spelling skills. Nowhere is safe!

I get these about once a week. And they all follow the same playbook:

Step 1: First off you will get a challenge from someone, always a young attractive woman with either an impressive chest, legs or both. This person will also always be a Lvl 1 player meaning they have never even won a single match. Personally I’m at Lvl 14 so it doesn’t make much sense for someone at Lvl 1to challenge me, but then they aren’t really after a game are they.

‘Awww, Crystal, the young cute woman with the cuter dog and cleavage wants to play’

Step 2: they will play a few words. Always 3 letter words or less. I have yet to receive a 4 letter word from any of them.

‘Geez Crystal, why no 4 letter words? It’s almost as if you aren’t interested in winning’

Step 3: Then comes the personal messages. Always a greeting, followed up with some generic pleasantries and really wanting you to chat.

‘Wow Crystal, how come you can use words over 4 letters here but not the actual game?’

If you ignore all the messages then they quickly quit the game. After all they are not really interested in playing Words With Friends, they want your details and to scam you. And they use the old bait of young attractive women who really want to talk to you.

Once the scam had proven ineffective and that particular profile has disappeared, the next day the pattern will repeat:

Step 1: Young attractive woman (well a photo of one anyway) at Lvl 1 challenging you to a game – check

Step 2: Only using two or three letter words – check

Step 3: Using words longer in the private chat than in the actual game – check

Once out of curiosity I actually answered their messages to see what Step 4 would be. And that turns out to be trying to get some of your personal information:

I’m sure if I could have been bothered to keep up the ruse of falling for their scam there would have been far more personal questions on the way. But my interest had waned at this point. I also tried looking up some of the profiles on different social media and couldn’t find any of them. You would think young hotties like this, if they are interested in chatting so much they will even do it in Words with Friends, would be all over things like Twitter, Instagram and Facebook but no. Why, its almost like these people don’t really exist outside the game!

So ladies and gentleman, beware the scammers. They are more active than ever right now with people being isolated at home, hoping that you are stir crazy or bored enough to fall for what they are selling. Don’t give you details to a stranger on the phone, don’t accept the email with the dodgy spelling, and certainly do not think that hot young women are trying to get to ‘know you better’ via a scrabble app.

Like Scalpers, Scammers are a bane on humanity – we can only hope they are all anti-vaxxers as well and that Covid will take care of the problem for us.

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Big Angry Trev!

Category Archives: Random Rants

Who became Cyclonus? Skywarp, Bombshell or an Insecticon Clone?

Ghostbusters Movies: All 5 ranked from Worst to Best!

Matilda Poole live on The Big DJ Trev 3rd anniversary show!

Movie Review – Transformers: Rise of the Beasts

The ROTB Wheeljack Controversy

How a Bad Airline ruined a Good Holiday

The Secret Post-Election Liberal’s Meeting

Househusband Tales #11 – The most Annoying Bird in Literature!

The ‘Words with Friends’ Scammers

Join the Trevolution!