I always enjoy having guest cohosts on ‘The Big DJ Trev Show!’, Sometimes they do acts, sometimes they do challenges, and sometimes its just having a lot of great fun and banter on air!
This week I had special guest cohosts Jason and Trent. We discussed everything from law and the possible existence of aliens, to Star Trek to the recent cancelling of shows by Tenacious D. Along with Jason and Trent were all our first born sons, who each chose a song and introduced it on air. Every guest that night did a fantastic job!
The show went for 3 hours, but as well as going out live on Krrfm.org.au we did some live streaming on social media as well. Find below the three short live streaming clips from the show. Unfortunately due to music copyright laws, short parts of audio are missing from the first and third videos.
Hopefully we can convince Jason & Trent to come back and do another show next year! In the meantime keep listening to The Big DJ Trev Show on KRR.fm
This question comes from master filmographer Pieter:
If The Transformers never existed do you think you would you have become a die hard collector of anything else like perhaps Robotech, Star Wars/Trek etc?
I’m going to have to give a big YES to that, though I’m sure never to the extent I have Transformers. I’ve collected various other things over the course of my life, and if I didn’t have Transformers I think my collections of them would be a lot bigger than they are. Given how much I spend per month on Transformers, the rest of my nerdy passions don’t get much of a look in.
Mid 90’s: Home Improvement Merchandise
Remember the 90’s sitcom Home Improvement? Back in the day I LOVED that show! Maybe it was because from 1987 onwards I lived away from my father, who had tried to be a good Dad in his way, but was 50 when I was born and already suffering from Paranoid Schizophrenia and Manic Depression. Thus he wasn’t a father who was overtly loving or would play catch with me at the park. So watching a TV Dad who openly loved, played and did activities with his sons, as well as being funny, perhaps was a substitute for something my own life was missing.
During the 90’s I wasn’t collecting Transformers as I wasn’t a big fan of Beast Wars, so for a while I collected Home Improvement merchandise. This included everything from collector cards, posters, jumpers, t-shirts, socks and even a board game.
Mid 90’s:/2000’s: The Tick
I love The Tick! He is by far and away my very favourite super hero and has been since the cartoon came out in the 90’s. I don’t have a great deal of The Tick merchandise, but truthfully in part that’s because there isn’t that much out there, as super heroes go he is on the obscure side.
Late 90’s: X-Men Comics
I used to collect X-Men comics in the late 90’s. Sadly when I moved in with a girl I gave a ton to a mate to hang onto who subsequently lost them, and now only have the special edition ones I kept for myself.
Early 2000’s: Men’s G-Strings
Wow – the ‘Censored’ sign somehow makes this photo look way worse than it actually is, you’d see worse at any swimming pool (maybe).
Hold up! This isn’t as pervy as it sounds! And they were all mine, not someone else’s!
When backpacking around Europe in my mid 20’s I had to lug all the clothing I had in my backpack and didn’t get to wash clothes that often. And two or 3 thongs would take up the same amount of space in my swag as one pair of boxer shorts would. So by wearing mens g-strings I could triple the amount of underwear I had before I had to find a laundromat in whatever country I happened to be in – now that’s just good common sense for a world traveller. As I traversed Europe I would occasionally pick up a new one at places like a fancy men’s underwear store in Florence.
When I arrived back in Australia I found I had accrued quite a few. The oldest have been tossed now. Back then I was young and very fit, these days it would look like wrapping a rubber band round the bottom of a pear. Ah but back in the day, it was amazing how many bar patrons across Europe would buy drinks all night for a Mad Aussie dancing round in a blokes thong – a great money saver!
90’s/2000’s: Star Trek
Yes, VHS Tapes. Yes, I am that old.
I’ve seen most everything made in both franchises, though admit to being far more of a Trekkie than a Star Wars fan. I bought nearly every Star Trek book written by Shatner, but never collected Star Trek merchandise in a huge way. Back in the 90’s I collected the ‘Star Trek Fact Files’ that came out each week for $5 and could be put into associated binders. Considering that there were a bit over 200 issues I guess that was a thousand bucks over 4 years which was a decent bit of cash. Sadly I had them stored in a shed and mice got into them so they are pretty wrecked now.
They’re from Japan – that makes them cultural instead of pervy.
For a while about 15 years ago I collected Anime Statuettes from some of my favourite Japanese cartoons and ended up with maybe a couple dozen. However parenthood changes ones perspective, and given the… ahem… proportions of many anime girls, they didn’t seem appropriate to have on display anymore, so I stopped collecting and those I had got packed away and have spent a decade in a box in the storage shed. I might get around to selling them off one day as I don’t think I’ll really ever want to display them again.
2010’s: My Little Pony
When I was the househusband and not working for 6 months when we first moved to NSW I used to watch My Little Pony with my young daughter each morning, and found it to be very entertaining and something we could share! So both she and I started collecting MLP figures, myself specializing in Rarity figures since I found her hilarious!
However the cartoon came to an end and she got older and lost all interest. She actually donated her MLP toys to me and I was a bit sad to see something we had enjoyed together cast aside. I kept a bunch of the Rarity ones, the rest went to goodwill as the joy for me came from collecting them with my daughter and sharing the hobby rather than the figures themselves.
‘Who ya gonna call? A middle-aged man cosplaying!’
If I didn’t collect Transformers, I think this would be mainly what I would collect now. I adore Ghostbusters, it is definitely my No.2 pop culture love. I’ve got a full uniform (gets busted out once a year to take my kids Trick’or’Treating), a few toys, DVD’s, video games, a board game etc.
Though nothing will ever equal the the first two movies for me, I love that the franchise is still kicking strong today.
Two times the fun, wrapped up and rolled into one!
So while I may not be able to afford to collect much outside of Transformers, luckily there are Transformer Crossovers! Between comics and toys Transformers has crossed over with the likes of Star Wars, Star Trek, Jurassic Park, Avengers, X-Men, Mr. Potato Head, Ghostbusters, Street Fighter, Back to the Future, Terminator…. heck, even Angry Birds!
So these crossovers have enabled me to dip my toe into other sci-fi genre’s without having to compromise my Transformers budget.
So yep Pieter, I would definitely still collect something. And maybe its in the blood because my son also collects Transformers and my daughter collects Stuffed Animals & Stich merchandise. But would I have a Ghostbustertorium Shed or MyLittlePony Stable? Probably not. Transformers have been producing toys for the last 40 years and never so much as in the past 20, and with dozens of different cartoons and movies, hundreds of different characters and thousands upon thousands of different toys, I don’t know how many other passions could have offered so much variety – it’s a lot of fun! But there will always be one small cabinet in the corner of The Transformatorium for those little extra’s from my other nerdy loves.
Thank you Pieter for your question.
If you would like to see some of Pieter’s great work, check out the short film he did about my Transformatorium!
While I quite like Star Wars – the first three movies made at any rate – I’m much more of a Trekkie. And like my feelings on Star Wars, I much prefer the original stuff to the new stuff. Oh there have been some quite good new movies made in both franchises, but it’s the old stuff that revs my engine.
Before Star Trek: The Next Generation debuted, there were 6 Star Trek movies. Admittedly the first one was a dog’s breakfast, an absolute shitshow which even the most die hard Trek fans struggle to like. The others were more well received but there is one that still cops flak – unfairly in my opinion – to this day. And that is Star Trek V: The Final Frontier.
Or as I like to call it – Kirk vs God.
Back in The Original Series Kirk faced down not only supremely powerful aliens with god-like powers routinely, but even met old gods from Earth like those of the Greek Pantheon. In these encounters Kirk either had sex with them or beat them up – a winning formula for a Starship Captain on the frontier.
Kirk: “I don’t care if he is in a dress – I’m not boning this one”
In Star Trek V this attitude of James Tiberius is taken to the extreme. Let’s look a short synopsis of the plot:
*Kirk, Spock and Bones go camping, play with jet-boots and get drunk.
Kirk: “I was pissed and napping. I ain’t getting fully dressed for whatever this is”
*Spock’s half-brother Sybok brainwashes the crew of the Enterprise (bar Kirk & Spock) to fly the Starship to the center of the universe to find God.
*Klingon’s follow as their Commander wants to destroy Kirk since doing so, as his second in command states, it would make him “The greatest warrior in the Galaxy”.
*They find God. Kirk, Bones, Spock and his brother beam down to a planet and have a chat with him.
God: “Hey, I’m God. I’m all loving, so do as I say or die!”
*Kirk doesn’t like the cut of God’s jib – Kirk thinks God is coming across as a bit of an arsehole. So since God isn’t female Kirk picks a fight! God, wisely knowing that if he gets into a brawl with Kirk he will get his celestial arse handed to him, shoots at them with energy bolts instead, then has a wrestle with Spock’s brother and kills him.
*Kirk knows God’s cheating with the energy bolts so returns the favour by having The Enterprise shoot God with photon torpedoes. Kirk’s near where the blasts will impact but knows he can withstand it, whilst God himself sustains a nice bit of damage. Kirk has his friends beamed away so he can finish the fight one-on-one.
*Kirk and God square off. Before Kirk can headbutt him, the Klingon Bird of Prey spaceship shows up and shoots God in the face, killing him. The gun then swings towards Kirk.
*Kirk’s pissed off – that was his fight! So standing there he calls the Klingon’s bastards (despite the fact THE GUN THAT JUST KILLED GOD IS BEING AIMED RIGHT AT HIM!) and challenges the hovering Klingon Battleship to bring it on!
*Just before Kirk can punch on with the battleship he gets beamed up and turns out it was Spock in the Klingon battleship that shot God, as he was the Vulcan equivalent of pissed off at God for killing his brother.
*Everyone gets drunk again.
Now to me, that is good cinema. Oh, besides the camping scene, the first half of the movie is forgettable with Spock’s half-brother running round curing peoples inner pain and whatnot. And there was plenty of other stuff that probably could have been cut as well. However the ending is great!
But then… could the ending have been EVEN BETTER?
I think so. Frankly I wanted to see Kirk and God duke it out. It might have been one of the few times Kirk was faced with an actual challenge – the two most powerful entities in the universe getting stuck into each other would have looked great on the big screen! I also would have liked to see Kirk get into a fight with the Klingon Bird of Prey. Would have Kirk’s fists been enough to take down a heavily armed and armoured alien intergalactic battleship? Personally I have faith they would have been up to the challenge, but I guess now we’ll never know.
Kirk vs Spaceship – lets get ready to rumble!
So yes, while many prefer the later Star Trek shows and movies, with Picard constantly drinking Earl Grey tea and Janeway talking to others about their feelings instead of, you know, making some tough decisions and actually getting her crew home quick, I shall always be a fan of the Original Series. And the last half hour of Star Trek V, where you get to see Kirk face off against the The Almighty himself and put the smack down, should be treasured by all those fans of Trek.
God something to say about this classic piece of cinematic history? Pop it in the comments section below!
