The Constructicon who comes closest to being an easy-to-relate-to, frustrated everyman (every-'bot?) type. What human, or robot, or any other kind of sentient, hasn't felt undervalued and underappreciated at one time or another? All Long Haul ever wants is to take part in the actual building, like the other Constructicons. But since his vehicle mode is a dump truck, he gets stuck with all the dirty and boring work. Unfortunately, his constant griping and complaining, while understandable, can get as tedious, repetitive, and redundant as the songs of that so-called people's poet, Bruce Springsteen (whom, it should be noted, despite having had a bona-fide blue-collar upbringing, has never actually worked a day job in his entire life.) But that's a failing on the part of the show's writers, and either way, Long Haul serves a valuable function as both a Constructicon and a member of a vivid fictional ensemble of characters.
Long Haul's voice actor: GREGG BERGER (Other notable voice roles: Colonel Brekhov, leader of the Oktober Guard, "G.I. Joe", Spirit, "G.I. Joe", Firefly, "G.I. Joe", Odie, "Garfield")
BONUS:
JAZZ
Bite-Sized Profile: Yes, Jazz had a black voice actor, the late, great Scatman Crothers, and, yes, he was a coded black character. And I think he came off quite well as a positive character, especially by 80s pop-culture standards. The Autobots' free-spirited gadfly, he loved Earth culture from the very start, and immersed himself in it. He had a fairly high rank in the original Autobot roster, and was a good, reliable warrior as well as the one with the upbeat, can-do, never-say-die attitude. His detractors have called him "the Chris Tucker of the Autobots", but Jazz never shucked and jived the way Tucker has. More disturbingly, I found the Jazz from Michael Bay's first crap-fest of a TF movie to not only be far more unflatteringly stereotypical than the original, but also, he's the Autobot who gets killed off (recall the whole allegedly outdate cliché about how the black character is always the one who dies in movies and TV shows. Shameful.) In the end, I think it says it all that Jazz was one of the very few of the 1984 Wave Autobots allowed by the writers to survive the carnage in "Transformers: The Movie" (the others were Bumblebee and Cliffjumper.) And, who knows, even if his toy hadn't already been discontinued, we might still have seen him get at least a handful of lines in Season 3. Unfortunately, though we did see him a few times, Crothers had died right after recording his lines for the movie. So Jazz never spoke again (and, bizarrely, in his most substantial Season 3 cameo, as the racer who wins the inter-galactic marathon in "Five Faces of Darkness, Part 1", he's referred to by the other characters as "Munka Spanka" (as in..."Monkey Spanker." Groan. I'll defend a lot of things about Season 3, but not that.)
Jazz's voice actor: SCATMAN CROTHERS (Other notable voice roles: Hong Kong Phooey/Penry, "Hong Kong Phooey", Scat Cat, "The Aristocats")
More TF goodness coming within the week, as I wrap up the Constructicons profiles with SCAVENGER & MIXMASTER, and put in my two cents on PROWL and STARSCREAM!!
3 years, 9.5 months, and one switch to another Legion World ID later...
...I still love the original Transformers and GoBots TV series.
And while I'm afraid I'll jinx both shows' recent availability on DailyMotion by mentioning it here, I also feel duty-bound to do just that, so that people can either watch those classics for the first time, or get re-acquainted with them.
Finally, here's a bit of half-assed fangirl philosophy which I am going to share anyway because my ego is so tremendous:
"Challenge of the GoBots" is to "Transformers" as Ernie Bushmiller's "Nancy" is to Charles M. Schulz's "Peanuts."
To make it clear to those not versed in the late Mr. Bushmiller's work, the above statement is not an insult. And if you still don't believe me, no less a genius than Bill "Zippy the Pinhead" Griffith is working on a book about Mr. Bushmiller's life and art.
So much for those shows being "glorified toy commercials." Nyah-nyah!
As this thread's first post of 2020, I thought it'd be apropos to do a Top 20 list for each show.
So, I give you the 20 TF eps that I recommend most highly (in random order, not by rank), and the 20 Gobots eps likewise.
Transformers (Pre-Movie only)
AUTO BERSERK MAKE TRACKS AUTO-BOP THE SEARCH FOR ALPHA TRION THE INSECTICON SYNDROME WAR DAWN ATLANTIS, ARISE THE SECRET OF OMEGA SUPREME STARSCREAM'S BRIGADE THE REVENGE OF BRUTICUS COSMIC RUST THE IMMOBILIZER THE MASTER BUILDER SEA CHANGE THE GOD GAMBIT THE GOLDEN LAGOON DIVIDE AND CONQUER THE CORE TRAITOR MICROBOTS
Gobots
ESCAPE FROM ELBA THE GOBOTS THAT TIME FORGOT INVASION FROM THE 21ST LEVEL (Part 1 of 2) INVASION FROM THE 21ST LEVEL (Part 2 of 2) ELEMENT OF DANGER THE THIRD COLUMN THE QUEST FOR ROGUE STAR DOPPLEGANGER MISSION GOBOTRON ET TU, CY-KILL CY-KILL'S CATACLYSMIC TRAP SPEED IS OF THE ESSENCE GUARDIAN ACADEMY QUEST FOR NEW EARTH FITOR TO THE FINISH FORCED ALLIANCE DAWN WORLD TERROR IN ATLANTIS TRIDENT'S TRIPLE THREAT DEPTH CHARGE
Question for EDE and other fans of vintage radio drama:
Do you think the voice acting on Transformers is at the same level of quality? I ask because I've repeatedly said in more than one Transformers thread that, as crazy-perfectionistic as the show's voice director, Wally Burr, is alleged to have been, I think it's indisputable he got superlative results. Sometimes I'll watch one of the lesser Transformers episodes just because they have some great bits of voice acting.
I'm not sure how to make the comparison, as voice acting for animation is much different than audio drama, plus quality varied a lot even in the Golden Age of Radio.
But, yeah, I definitely think that Transformers had first rate voice acting overall.
Thanks, EDE. It's really something, how just about every show that Wally Burr voice-directed in the 80s had better voice acting than the rest. Even some of the 70s Hanna Barbera shows he worked on! I mean, "Dynomutt," and "Captain Caveman," and "Laff-A-Lympics" were not any better-written than the other HB shows, but the voices! Frank Welker & Gary Owens as Dynomutt & Blue Falcon, what chemistry they had! And then there's one of the last shows Burr did for HB, "Drak Pack," which I recall fondly and which is a favorite of Rockhopper Lad's. That one *was* better-written than the other HB shows (and...six degrees...one of the "Drak Pack" writers was future "Transformers" writer Douglas Booth.)
Great news! After being away from YouTube for many years, Transformers is back and, hopefully, here to stay!
Challenge of the GoBots is there, too, but they're charging $1.99 per episode, where Transformers is free (albeit with ads.)
Annfie to the rescue, though, because later on today I'll provide a list of the GoBots episodes that are worth spending a little bit of your money on. (No cheap jokes, please.)
Sigh. Turns out there's less than half of the 65 GoBots episodes available on YouTube. Ah, well, here's the ones out of that bunch that are worth the $1.99 per episode:
"Battle for GoBotron" (Pilot Mini-Series, Part 1)
"Target: Earth" (Pilot Mini-Series, Part 2)
"Conquest of Earth" (Pilot Mini-Series, Part 3)
"Earth Bound" (Pilot Mini-Series, Part 4)
"The Final Conflict" (Pilot Mini-Series, Part 5)
"Whiz Kid"
"Terror In Atlantis" (PERSONAL FAVORITE RECOMMENDATION)
"The Quest for Rogue Star" (PERSONAL EXTRA-SPECIAL FAVORITE RECOMMENDATION)
"Speed Is of the Essence" (PERSONAL EXTRA-SPECIAL FAVORITE RECOMMENDATION)
"Depth Charge" (PERSONAL FAVORITE RECOMMENDATION)
(And to prove what a mess this whole set-up is, only two of the five episodes that make up the second mini-series, "The GoBotron Saga," are available! Avoid those until the rest finally become available.)
So, today we find ourselves a full 2 months into 2024, and it only now occurs to me that just because the 40th anniversary of the first Transformers air date isn't until September 17th, it doesn't mean we need to wait until then to celebrate the anniversary.
Let's celebrate the whole franchise for the whole rest of the year!
A jokey reference to the Constructicons, which I just posted in the current Kill This Thread game, reminded me that I never got around to profiling Scavenger, Mixmaster, and Devastator.
RIP veteran voice actor Peter Reneday -- Grapple on Transformers and the Master Renegade on GoBots. He also played Mandrake the Magician on Defenders of the Earth and, in his most famous role, Master Splinter on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
And I happened to have re-watched Grapple's showcase episode, "The Master Builder," just a couple weeks ago.
I often fantasize about who would have voiced the Avengers if there had been an Avengers cartoon in the 80s -- I'd have cast Reneday as Thor.
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