Stasis Pod

When Sumdac Systems employee (and obnoxious gamer dood) Henry Masterson is fired after his Headmaster demonstration sends a missile heading straight for downtown Detroit, he vows to have his revenge (as you do). But when that revenge involves stealing Bulkhead’s body, he’s got to deal with not just Sumdac and the police but the Autobots as well! Can they stop him before he blows up the...

Meltdown needs a new test subject, and he’s got his sights set on Sari — AND he’s using the Dinobots to kidnap her! Can Bulkhead and Prowl save her without letting the others know about Dinobot Island? Or will she manage to save herself? And just where did Fanzone get that amazing retro cell phone? Join us this week for Survival of the Fittest! We want to hear your questions! Ema...

Lugnut and Blitzwing arrive on Earth looking for their lost commander, but after Megatron contacts Lugnut and orders him to retrieve the Allspark, can the Autobots keep it out of their clutches? Will Blitzwing even believe him? And how does Sari even get away with being so badly behaved? Join us this week for Lost and Found! We want to hear your questions! Email us at stasispod@iaconunderground.ne...

Megatron schemes to harness the power of Sari’s key by giving her a new toy to upgrade. Will her new Soundwave toy evolve enough to become Megatron’s new body? Or will it become something else entirely? And how cute is a Derrick Wyatt-designed robot uprising, come on? Join us this week for Sound And Fury! We want to hear your questions! Email us at stasispod@iaconunderground.net and we...

This week it’s Optimus’s turn for traumatic flashbacks as Sari’s Halloween decorations remind him of a lost friend and a run-in with giant alien spiders. But when that friend returns, she’s not what he expected! Will she be able to manipulate her way to Sari’s key? How does she stack up to her Beast Wars incarnation? And just how cool is it to get a Transformers...

Without a body of his own, Megatron resorts to recruiting a small-time crook to steal the Destronium he needs with the help of a discarded super-speed supersuit from Sumdac. Can Bumblebee’s own ill-advised speed upgrades give him the boost he needs to stop him? And does anybody actually use the word “nanosec” in conversation? Join us this week as we catch up with Nanosec! We want...

A Cybertronian bounty hunter arrives on Earth looking for the Autobots who took down Megatron — and he’s an all-too-familiar face from Ratchet’s past! Can the grouchy old medic overcome his fear to save the others? What familiar voices show up this time around? And is it really body horror when it’s robots? Join us this week for The Thrill of the Hunt! We want to hear your...

This week David makes April Fools of us all by making us watch the inexplicably popular new anime Kemono Friends ! How much are Serval-chan, Sand Cat-chan, and Tsuchinoko-chan like Cute Anime Girl Cheetor, Tigatron, and Dinobot? Was Japari Park actually Earth all along? Does it have a second moon that will turn into a superweapon? And who comes out of it thinking that anime was a mistake? Joi...

After the Autobots accidentally break a trio of tourist trap animatronic dinosaurs, Sumdac decides it would be a great idea to rebuild them… with the help of his new buddy Megatron! What could possibly go wrong? How many homages to Jurassic Park can they fit in a single episode? And what obvious supervillain hideaway actually exists in real-life Detroit? Join us this week for a Blast from th...

Sumdac’s rival Prometheus Black is determined to prove that the future is human modification, not robotics, but when he has a lab accident while trying to find a way to sabotage the Autobots, he becomes the series’ first new human supervillain, Meltdown! Can the Autobots put a stop to him before he turns Sumdac Tower into a puddle of goo? Can Bumblebee prove that size doesn’...

Sari helps the Autobots settle into their new home on Earth, and she decides to start with a sleepover! But when her key jolts Megatron awake, he immediately starts looking for ways to get the Allspark from them! Can the Autobots survive a game of Twister? Will Prowl stop being a jerk? And just what kind of vocal range does Corey Burton have? Join us this week as we learn that Home Is Where T...

The Autobots are getting settled into their new home, but there’s still one loose thread: Starscream is coming for the Allspark! Can the Autobots stop him? Is this the fastest an Optimus has died in a new series? And does that make it real Transformers now? Join us this week for Transform and Roll Out! Part 3! We want to hear your questions! Email us at stasispod@iaconunderground.net and we...

In near-future Detroit, Issac Sumdac has revolutionized the world with his company’s robotic creations. But when an experiment in the nanotech lab gets out of control, it wakes the Autobots’ ship from its stasis at the bottom of Lake Erie! Can they figure out what these squishy “human” things are and save the city at the same time? Whatever happened to this brave Cartoon Ne...

With Beast Wars, Beast Machines, and an overview of everything else after behind us, it’s time to move on to our next full series: Transformers Animated! The war is over, and Autobot Academy washout Optimus Prime is stuck on space bridge repair duty with a ragtag crew when they come across something no one expected to see again: The Allspark! But when its presence draws Megatr...

As the Unicron Trilogy came to a close, the Transformers franchise was poised on the edge of something that would change it forever: Michael Bay’s first live-action Transformers movie. This week we wrap up the Unicron Trilogy and discuss everything that happened between it and our next subject, Transformers Animated! We want to hear your questions! Email us at stasispod@iaconunderground.net...

After the Energon cartoon, Hasbro and Takara decided they needed to put at least a little effort into the next one. By enlisting the anime studio Gonzo and actually giving the translators time to work, Transformers: Cybertron was… well, at the very least, better than the two shows that came before it. With far better CG robots, some genuinely charming characters, and a story that at the...

Following Armada’s amazing toy sales, Hasbro and Takara apparently decided lackluster animation and even worse translation were just fine, because that seems to have been the attitude behind the Transformers: Energon TV series. With a confusing plot, stilted CG robots, and translations errors on par with Generation 1’s animation errors, Energon quickly established itself as no one&#821...

With anime the “cool new thing the kids are into”, 2002 saw the first Transformers toyline and TV show jointly developed by Hasbro and Takara for both markets: Armada. And while the toys were exciting and innovative, the show was… less so. With the Autobots out fighting screaming dramatically at the Decepticons, Alexis, Rad, and Carlos find the base’s computer being ha...

After Beast Machines, Hasbro took a break from cartoon production and imported Takara’s Car Robots under the name Robots in Disguise. But only a couple episodes into the show’s American run on Fox Kids, something happened that lowered the American viewing public’s appetite for casual urban destruction . Many episodes had to be edited; a few had to be pulled from airing entir...

With Beast Machines finished, our rewatch of the Beast Era comes to an end. Join us this week as we talk collective fandom fits, the influence of the Beast Era on later Transformers fiction, and Rob tells us all about Bob Skir’s Beast Machines prose story! (Also David apologizes in advance for some “sketchier than usual editing”.) We want to hear your questions! Email us at...

This is it: the final episode of the Beast era! Every Maximal but Optimus Primal has had their spark removed, and now Optimus must face Megatron in his own upgraded body! With the souls of every Cybertronian at stake, with the two of them left as the only living beings on Cybertron, can Optimus defeat him? Or will Megatron succeed in remaking the planet in his image? And will Waspinator ever...

With the sparks of every Transformer on Cybertron at stake, the Maximals try to hold the grounded Grand Mal against the full force of Megatron’s Vehicons. But just what is this new body Megatron is building for himself? Can the Maximals glow and crash into things enough to make a difference? And how far will these titles keep stretching for the sake of hyperbole? Join us for the penulti...

The Downward Spiral is the second studio album by the American industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails, released on March 8, 1994 by Nothing Records and Interscope Records in the United States and by Island Records in Europe. It is a concept album detailing the destruction of a man, from the beginning of his “downward spiral” to his attempt at suicide. The Downward Spiral features element...

Megatron is TOTALLY DEAD. He is NOT any sort of rogue spark flying about possessing random conglomerations of reused models. And he was absolutely NOT made that way by some completely incomprehensible techno-babble. Join us this week as we watching something that sure isn’t Spark of Darkness! We want to hear your questions! Email us at stasispod@iaconunderground.net and we might answer them...

The Maximals finally find the sparks in perhaps the most obvious place possible, but what Megatron’s doing with them is downright grimdark! Can they escape with their own sparks intact? Why can’t they just leave Nightscream behind with Noble and get rid of two nuisances at once? Will Noble’s reappearance turn out to be super convenient? And how far can an episode title be stretch...