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.