Why is capitalism ruining gaming | Anniversaries | One Geek Thing | #GeekyGoingsOn | Geek of the Week

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Hello there, and welcome to the geeky Brimie, year eight, issue four episode. Joining me today is Jedi Master Sam David Edwards. Hello, Jedi Master Keith Bloomfield. Hello there, Jedi Master Lee Price. [00:00:12] Speaker B: I'm more of like a Han solo type. [00:00:16] Speaker A: And I'm Jedi Knight Mister Ryan Farish. However we all be. Well, good. [00:00:21] Speaker C: Yeah, not bad. [00:00:22] Speaker D: Yeah. Making the best of the four days of english summer. [00:00:25] Speaker C: Yes. [00:00:26] Speaker D: As we record before we pick the. [00:00:29] Speaker A: Most beautiful sunny day in the world to come into our bunker and record an episode, mainly because there's air conditioning, I think. But coming up today, we'll be talking about what the hell is going on at Xbox and in the gaming industry in general. We've got some geeky anniversaries this year, including Teenage Mutant ninja Turtles, Transformers, and Star Wars Episode one. It's a big birthday. We'll be talking about geeky going on and what's coming up in the local area and our one geeky things. But we shall be back after this. Over the last week, Xbox has decided to shutter a few studios, including Tango Gameworks, who released the amazing hi fi Rush last year. Which one of these games of the year? If you keep an eye on the geeky premium website, Arkane Austin, who released Redfall and Alpha Dog game studios might doom, with Roundhouse studios now being absorbed into the elder Scrolls online team. So I think these are all Bethesda studios. Was that right? So Microsoft bought Bethesda about a year and a half ago now. [00:01:30] Speaker B: It's been a while. Yeah. [00:01:31] Speaker A: And. Yeah. So Microsoft are just buying every gaming studio under the sun, and now they realized, oops, we've got too many game studios. So they just seem to be pruning away without actually working out what each studio does. From the press reaction, Lee, do you want to go into a bit more detail? [00:01:49] Speaker B: Okay, so basically, the situation as we sort of know it right now. So basically, like you said, the four studios got closed down. So we got two of them especially have been getting, like, a lot of sort of negative attention because of how many, like, acclaimed titles those studios have put out. So obviously, you mentioned Redfall for Arcane Austin, which obviously wasn't well received. But before that they made prey, which was incredibly well received. [00:02:15] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:02:16] Speaker B: They also worked on the first dishonored with their sister studio in Leon. Dishonored two was done by the Leon studio exclusively. [00:02:25] Speaker A: So they've survived the cold. [00:02:26] Speaker B: Yeah, I think part of that is because they're french, and if they get closed down, then Paris is on fire again. [00:02:33] Speaker A: It's very expensive to get rid of french stuff, I think Microsoft alert. [00:02:38] Speaker B: So as a result, I think you've got that. And obviously like Tango as well as hi fi rush, they obviously made the evil within and ghost wire Tokyo. And there's a lot of discussion about why they chose the studios. So one thing that's kind of interesting about sort of looking at the answers that have come out of Microsoft in the days since is there is no real coherent answer. And the more that we get out of Microsoft, the more obvious it becomes that they don't actually have any idea what they're doing. Let me quote, let me direct you to a quote that sitting the Microsoft games president. So it was the head of the Xbox game studio. So it's Matt Booty who is the head of the thing, which is the funniest name in games development. [00:03:31] Speaker A: Is that even better than Bowser being in charge of Nintendo? [00:03:34] Speaker B: That is pretty funny as well. Bowser is great, but it's not booty though, is it? But basically, what was it? He said we need smaller games that give us prestige and awards. And he said they just won an. [00:03:49] Speaker A: Award with hi fi rush. [00:03:51] Speaker B: Yeah. And this is the thing. Like it was literally the day after they closed tango. He said this in a sort of earnings call, you know, sort of thing. And it's like everyone's response to that is, but you just closed a studio that gave you a smaller game, that gave you prestige and awards, and it's just baffling. And then we had Sarah Bond, who is like one of the many other executives. I don't actually know what her specific role is. I think she might be sort of in charge of marketing and stuff. And she was asked like point blank, why did you close tango? She gave, like the most generic corporate response. I can't even remember the exact words because it's honestly, none of it means anything. It's basically like, oh, well, we love games and every studio's got its own requirements and we. Yeah, it is basically that. And it's like, okay, well, that didn't actually answer the question, but okay, but I love that in that clip, the cameraman decides, let's cut to the graph that's sitting above her, which shows Xbox profits year on year. And in 2020, the graph shoots up. But in like the last year, it's gone from here to like slightly lower. And that is why we have to close studios. [00:05:05] Speaker A: So what happened in 2020, which made people stay at home for quite a lot of time and maybe invest more in video games? I wonder what that could possibly have been that happened in 2020. Any ideas? [00:05:21] Speaker C: Donald Trump elected. No one else wanted. No one wanted to go out and face the world. [00:05:26] Speaker D: From a business point of view, though, I don't understand why you would just shutter studios for no reason if you're not hemorrhaging money. I mean, there's bigger businesses out there that are hemorrhaging money all the time, but don't shutter things. And like you said, to go the day after and literally contradict what you've done in your actions, that makes no sense. Because why just shut them? Are you folding those teams into other teams so that they can continue development? Because the other thing is that I don't understand is what those studios must have been working on stuff. [00:06:00] Speaker B: Well, that's. This is the thing. They weren't actually working on stuff actively redfall. [00:06:06] Speaker A: They were trying to kind of rescue it. [00:06:08] Speaker B: I believe Arkane had a leg post launch content and I think they were working on the DLC 5 hours before they were closed. Yeah. And then hi fi and tango, they were pitching hi fi rush two. So they were still very much in the sort of pre production pitching stage. [00:06:27] Speaker D: And they'd also just released hi fi rush to a wider audience as well because it became available on PlayStation platforms. Yeah. So it's like, surely that's just to increase the demand because other people get to see how good a game that actually is. [00:06:39] Speaker B: But the thing with what it is is their argument was because Matt Booty didn't just say that, you know, he didn't just contradict himself, he did kind of explain a little bit, which was basically that they, according to Microsoft, felt that they had to close something for the simple fact that their management team is currently spread too thin across all the studios they have to. Which my response is, well, that's a management problem because you didn't have to buy all those studios. Or if you were going to buy all those studios, why didn't you bring some of the people onto the management team to help manage the studios? [00:07:20] Speaker A: Some of the managers from said studios would be. [00:07:23] Speaker B: But that's the thing. What's fascinating about the Bethesda studios being closed down is they kept all of Bethesda's management, so surely they were the ones in charge of Bethesda's studios. Anyway. [00:07:35] Speaker A: To me, it seems to be that Microsoft have bet the entire farm on Game Pass. [00:07:41] Speaker B: Yes. [00:07:42] Speaker A: So Game Pass is their idea of turn games into Netflix monthly subscription fee, never buy a physical copy again, never buy a disc. You just get whatever comes out on Game Pass, and then we'll have a stock stable of Microsoft game studios titles. And then we'll bring stuff in and take stuff and refresh it from third party studios. But what their plan was, well, instead of just buying stuff for third party studios, we'll just buy the studio and get them to make stuff for Game Pass. And the problem is people are getting sick of subscription services. [00:08:12] Speaker B: Yeah. And this is, there's actually, I think there's two factors to it. Like you said, people are sick of streaming, of streaming platforms. So saw someone try and make the argument of like, oh, well, there's not that many, like, streaming platform. Like, there's not many subscriptions in gaming right now because obviously, like, each of the consoles has one, but like, you know, like, that's not like valve. [00:08:34] Speaker A: Just sell whatever they want and we'll come on to heldovers too, as well. [00:08:38] Speaker B: It's not like, it's not like, you know, film and tv where it's like every studio has now decided we want our own streaming service. But I think anyone making that argument is forgetting that people who play games don't just play games, they are also subscribed to Netflix, they are also subscribed to Disney. And it's all this sort of thing that because you've got all these other streaming services coming in, I think, and you've got the cost of living crisis as well. People are cutting back on things and subscription services are one of the first things people are cutting back on. [00:09:11] Speaker A: And the thing with game class, when it launched it, they threw a lot of money at it. They absolute a lot of money out of it. And it was a kind of, you'd get a, probably a AAA title every month without fail. And now, as you said, I think we've said this multiple times, they bought all these studios, 90% of them haven't released a project in the last 1220 months. So we've got all these studios hemorrhaging money, paying for this development time, and still nothing to show for it in. [00:09:40] Speaker B: The vast majority of it. This is a persistent problem that Microsoft have had probably since the Xbox one days, where they've kind of just forgotten to release games. Like Microsoft, I've noticed over the last few years, have this brilliant habit of just announcing games and then never releasing any game. I still remember the state of Decay three was announced in what, 2018 or something like that. And they said literally nothing else about it since it's not a game that I'm particularly interested in. [00:10:11] Speaker D: Sounds like they're announcing Star wars movies. [00:10:13] Speaker A: Yeah, but if you think about big Xbox games, over the last twelve to 18 months, Halo Infinite, which obviously hasn't been, which is a live service game, which is awful. [00:10:24] Speaker B: You had Starfield. [00:10:25] Speaker A: Starfield, which was also kind of at this point. [00:10:29] Speaker B: This is what's sort of fascinating about closing tango, is that hi fi Rush was kind of like exactly what Xbox needed. [00:10:35] Speaker A: It's a single player game. [00:10:37] Speaker B: Not just that, but it was also a game that had people talking, it had a lot of excitement around it, a lot of buzz. [00:10:41] Speaker A: The problem is, it's a single player game and people play it completely it, and then they're happy, they're done, they've moved on. Now it's executives look for how do you turn it into a constant stream of revenue? How do you make sure there's dlc on it? It's, how do you ensure there's microtransactions? They're trying to turn it into mobile gaming, which was mobile five to ten years ago. [00:11:03] Speaker B: Which is why that graph in that video was the perfect illustration. Because the problem is capitalism, as always, where it's like, because Microsoft is a publicly traded company, their objective isn't to sell us stuff or to make the best tech or whatever it is, their goal is to appease shareholders. And if that line isn't constantly going up every quarter, then something needs to be done about it. And that means studios get closed down. [00:11:35] Speaker A: And if you think about the two studios they have go to three studios they've closed. They probably tango game once they're not actively developing it. And so then it's just so cost people sat around even though they're probably working on their pre development stage. To an executive that's, well, they're not producing anything. Get them gone. [00:11:51] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:11:51] Speaker A: And then you look at arcade with Redfall and it's like, well, that game sucked, nobody liked it. Why are you still working on it? [00:11:57] Speaker B: They claim wasn't the reason, but it's. [00:12:00] Speaker A: Obviously the reason this. [00:12:01] Speaker B: But you know, I think part of it is that also they weren't making a new game. Yeah, at that point, but it's like they were also pitching a new game and they were looking to pitch another, another prey, basically. Not necessarily another game series, but like something similar, another sort of immersive sim in the vein of Prey or dishonored. [00:12:20] Speaker A: Well, it seems you get in hammered for innovation now. Yeah, it's. Unless you make a cookie cutter triple a title in the zone of a Ubisoft, here's a million things to do on the map, or it's a live service of. There'll be season passes and there's constant content in the form of destiny or fortnight or something like that. [00:12:39] Speaker D: But isn't the audience going to grow tired of all of these at some point? Because if the idea is to keep the, the line going, oh, yeah, it's like without innovation, how surely at some point people toe and it'll just be. [00:12:51] Speaker B: There's already a shift in this happening, like, very visibly, like we're seeing console sales, like, stagnating. Well, two consoles that. Seeing their sales stagnating. [00:13:01] Speaker A: How old are the Xbox Series X and PlayStation? [00:13:06] Speaker D: Five years now. [00:13:07] Speaker B: Four years now four years, but four years as of the end of this. [00:13:10] Speaker A: Year now, we seem to have gone from like a very short four to five year cycle to eight to nine years. Consoles are now expected to last. [00:13:18] Speaker B: And this is the other problem. This is what's fascinating about, like, you know, the current console generation is it's very hard to pinpoint games that sort of define this generation because there's so few games that have been released since the start of it. And the problem is it's all these budgets have accelerated upwards and games are taking longer to make. And this is why you need projects like hi fi rush, smaller things that can be inserted in between the big blockbuster things. [00:13:46] Speaker A: And the perfect example, GTA. The gap between GTa V and GTA six is launched is longer than the gap between GTA one being released and GTA five. And how many games came out in that period of time? You had one, two, three, San Andreas, Vice City, Vice City, all the Game Boy advance games. [00:14:09] Speaker B: Yeah, there was a bunch of side. [00:14:11] Speaker A: Things, Chinatown, War, stuff like that. And all of that was made in the same amount of time. It's made from five to six, because. [00:14:17] Speaker B: GTA, and like, my favorite summary of that situation is the PS two had three GTA's. GTA five has had three playstations. [00:14:27] Speaker D: But is that, again another indication of how the gaming industry works now that, because everybody, they released that trailer for GTA Six, which I just was like, meh. But it got a lot of people I know, like, thinking, oh, my God, this is gonna be the greatest game ever. And I was like, put. [00:14:44] Speaker A: And two and a half years down the line, still nothing really. [00:14:46] Speaker D: Is it, is it going to be the greatest game you've ever played? It's going to be just more of the same with perhaps a few graphical tweaks. It's like, where's the really interesting developments? And it's interesting, you were saying about mobile, is the gaming industry thinking that's where it's got to throw all of its energies into because I think you have the buzz of PlayStation, have tried their PlayStation Portal thing and Xbox. There's rumors of them thinking about mobile stuff. So is the game industry thinking, we're going to get rid of the under telly device and move towards because of the success of things like Steam deck and Razors and all the rest of them, is the industry shifting to that kind of like mobile? You know, I think we're going backwards rather than forwards. [00:15:29] Speaker B: So what I find interesting about that is, like, right now, the most successful consoles on the market are arguably handhelds. If you look at the Switch and you look at the Steam deck, they are both doing very, very well. And I think there is like a clear appetite for having that sort of hybrid console where you can play it portably. [00:15:52] Speaker A: Most of the pc manufacturers are jumping on, so there's the rog ally Legion. Legion, go Ioneo. [00:16:02] Speaker B: But I think that, like, Sony and Microsoft are a bit reluctant to jump right into it because they want. Because they've convinced themselves so thoroughly that the thing that sells consoles is power. They've convinced themselves exclusives as well, which. [00:16:16] Speaker D: Again, you think that's just insanity because they've got a market waiting. And I know you're very keen on the idea of legacy and archiving of games and the fact that I downloaded the Delta app to play retro games on my phone. I mean, I've got other consoles that I can do it with it, but the convenience of having several things in different bags and you've always got it, but I'd quite happily give, you know, Sony whatever a few, a few pennies to be able to play older games at my convenience, AAA games, newer games I haven't really got the time to. [00:16:51] Speaker A: So you say that and then you look at what's happened in the mobile market, specifically square Enix and stuff like Knights of the Old Republic, which were released at ten to 15 pounds on a mobile download. These are like 1520 year old games and it's just an excuse for them to sell them at a premium price. [00:17:10] Speaker B: Again, it's funny you mentioned Square Enix in the mobile space, though, because that's an interesting whole thing, because Square Enix went really hard on the mobile market because, well, if you do well in it, you make a lot of money. They've launched probably about 50 million games in the space for about two years and they've shut at about 40 million games in the last few years. [00:17:32] Speaker A: We were releasing like Final Fantasy, four, five, six. The old, like SNES era games, but still trying to charge ten to twelve. [00:17:41] Speaker D: Pounds where you would expect if you were saying 199, yeah, something like that. Then you'd go, yeah, that's fair. [00:17:47] Speaker A: Instant purchase because it's a great game. But then you look at mobile game now versus where it was. So you had stuff. It really innovates of Game dev story. When that first came out, all the carousoft games and they were two to three pounds and you'd get a good few hours worth out of play, out of it. Motorsport manager was one of the first big games I picked up on. I think it was a Sega release now, but that was an indie title that got bought out by Seyther. So yeah, now you look at mobile games, you look at Star Wars, Galaxy of Heroes, which is a collector, but it's a constant, many, many, many. It's pay to win. [00:18:23] Speaker B: That is basically what the mobile market overall is. It's basically just free to play games where they expect you to pump loads of money into it. [00:18:31] Speaker D: I mean, I know it's unlikely, highly unlikely, but as a very in it personally, do you think that the games industry is heading towards that kind of like Atari style crash where it's going to be? [00:18:46] Speaker B: Because I have a video in development right now for my YouTube channel about this very question, so wait and see. But what I will say is that right now, what like Sony and Microsoft really need to be doing is looking at Nintendo and going, what are they doing that we're not? Because Nintendo, even though like Switch sales are down from last year. But when I say they're down, I mean like they've gone from 17 million sold in a year to 15 million sold in a year. [00:19:16] Speaker A: And they've just announced the Switch too. [00:19:18] Speaker B: And that's like why they've announced the Switch too. [00:19:20] Speaker D: The likelihood is the only reason, the only reason somebody's buying a Switch now is because their old ones bust. Yeah, they've had it for so long. [00:19:27] Speaker A: They want the OLED model so it's slightly better. [00:19:29] Speaker B: And you know, we've gotten to. But the point is that they continue. They've still made a profit despite the Switch sales going down because they've got a strong software lineup. And just because they never reduced the. [00:19:42] Speaker A: Price of their thorough. [00:19:43] Speaker D: There is that too. [00:19:44] Speaker A: How much is Mario Kart still trading for? [00:19:47] Speaker B: But also this. Well, the thing about Mario Kart is that that's still the best selling Switch game and that's all like another like 10 million copies in the last year as well. Like, like I've looked at their financials recently. So it's like, you know, and that's the whole thing though. Like Nintendo is succeeding because they've, they're doing what Microsoft and Sony seem unwilling to do, which is investing in their studios and letting them stay in their. [00:20:14] Speaker A: Lane of not as powerful but innovative and will do different things every time. [00:20:19] Speaker D: But just does Nintendo gain because of the issues they had? They came off the Wii. The Wii, which was a massive, successful console and then slightly didn't go quite as well with the Wii U. I. [00:20:34] Speaker A: Think that was more of a marketing failure more than anything else. [00:20:36] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:20:37] Speaker B: Bear in mind that when the Wii U came out, they showed loads of pictures of the tablet controller and not the console itself. So a lot of people, especially with its name, thought it was an accessory for the Wii. And they were like, well, I don't need a tablet controller for the Wii and just carry it on with their life. But this is the thing. Microsoft could have just gone, okay, let's invest money into tango gameworks. We've had all this critical acclaim. How can we capitalize on that and make their next project even bigger? How can we market that better? How can we get it moving? [00:21:10] Speaker D: Especially if it hadn't necessarily been hi fi rush to, I would have been much more in favor of do something new and innovative rather than just. [00:21:18] Speaker B: But I think this is the thing. When you look at Nintendo, they have a tendency to invest in their studios and even if a game doesn't do incredibly well, they're still willing to keep it going and do. Because someone brought up the Kirby series as a really good comparison where for 30 years Kirby sells one to 2 million copies per game consistently. [00:21:40] Speaker A: Kevin is not a Nintendo character though. It's Hal, isn't it? [00:21:43] Speaker B: It is. It's. It's owned by Nintendo. The iP is owned by Nintendo. But like, the fact that Nintendo have greenlit allowed Hal to keep making those games year on year when they don't grow in sales. The only one that's sort of seen any sort of growth is the most recent one, which is forgotten land, which I think went up to like 5 million copies or something. [00:22:05] Speaker A: You have other stuff like the Yoshi yarn tail one, whatever. That was really fun, really innovative. [00:22:12] Speaker B: And because they've invested all this money into all their different studios and they've got all these different projects going on that aren't necessarily all the big like tiers of the Kingdom style releases, they've got a lineup that's like the Switch, since it released, has had like a first party title released for it like every month and a half on average. Whereas like, again, Sony and Microsoft, it's like, I can point to last year Sony had Spider man two. The year before that Xbox had nothing. And I'm like, what is going on? [00:22:44] Speaker A: Well, they'd had a Call of Duty in FIFA, which is where they make the money. That's all people care about. [00:22:49] Speaker B: They haven't bought Activision yet, though. [00:22:50] Speaker A: Yeah, but can we just. I know we need to wrap up because we're probably going too long into this topic, but held overs too. Can we talk about that whole situation? Because that is executive meddling at the highest level, which is somebody probably went, we need to get PlayStation network numbers up this month. Let's put a mandatory requirement where this service is not offered in 170 countries around the world. And in some of the countries where it's offered, you need to have a PlayStation five or a PlayStation four to log on to the PlayStation network. Anyway, let's put it on the hottest game, the most viral game that we have just bought. [00:23:26] Speaker B: So what's interesting about like the helldivers two situation, and I can actually relate it to the tango situation, is that both Sony and Microsoft have done something there where there's an obvious growth opportunity that they've just gone, what if we just threw this in the toilet? So helldivers two, as you pointed out, PSN not available in 170 countries. Sony recently have been complaining about a lack of growth within the console market. And I'm just like, how about you open up the PlayStation to those 170 countries? That feels like a really obvious growth opportunity for you. [00:23:58] Speaker A: And then you could do your whole will stick it on steam, but you can still have to log in with your PlayStation network and like people would. [00:24:04] Speaker B: Complain less because they wouldn't be locked out of it because they've now done the same thing with Ghost Asusima for pc, where that's not going to be sold in 170 countries. [00:24:13] Speaker A: Valve pretty much said if it's PSN, we're not going to sell it. [00:24:17] Speaker B: And it's the same thing as Tango where Microsoft have been complaining about we're not doing well in Japan, so let's close our one japanese studio. Whereas instead of leveraging it and using it as a gateway into the japanese market business. But you know, all these executives, they're all big brain business boys and we don't understand their machinations. [00:24:46] Speaker D: It reminds me of a quote I've seen a lot recently that I do like, which is if all the best people are in all the best jobs, why is everything a bin fire. [00:24:54] Speaker A: I think we need to close this on. Gaming is just bad at the moment. [00:24:58] Speaker B: Well, I would disagree. [00:24:59] Speaker D: Apart from the indie ski, I think gaming is great. [00:25:01] Speaker B: There's a lot of great this past week, as of recording, has had some superb indie games just across the board. And I think we need to celebrate. [00:25:12] Speaker D: That your latest games of the week's selections have been. Most of those are not triple a titles. [00:25:19] Speaker B: Yeah, I think the only big aaa thing I've made game of the week recently was stellar blade. And that's like, even that's kind of sort of what you'd expect. [00:25:28] Speaker A: That's had a lot of time for so different reasons. [00:25:34] Speaker B: But yeah, I think, like, ultimately the conclusion we can reach from all this is it's actually capitalism that's bad. [00:25:39] Speaker A: Yes. [00:25:39] Speaker B: And basically stock market is ruining everything. [00:25:43] Speaker A: So our advice is go and look at indie games. Go and buy some indie games, support some creators who are maybe able to make their own triple A title in the future and get away from the big bad of being owned by a massive corporation who doesn't know what to do with them. [00:25:59] Speaker B: I agree. [00:26:04] Speaker C: Geek up week. [00:26:12] Speaker B: Who are you? [00:26:13] Speaker E: My name's Nick. I'm the assistant manager at worlds apart in Birmingham. [00:26:18] Speaker B: What is world apart? Birmingham? [00:26:22] Speaker E: One of the oldest comic shops in the UK. We're part of Forbidden Planet International, so we've got stores up in Scotland running all the way down to Brighton. And we are a, I guess a nerd specialist shop. So, you know, comics, manga, graphic novels, funko, everything that you can think of really, that's collectible or fun or enjoyable, we've got it. [00:26:51] Speaker B: What got you into being a geek? [00:26:54] Speaker E: I would probably say catching just a random episode of the Batman animated series. When I was a kid, it was that. That really, really grabbed me and sucked me into that whole universe. And then, you know, the Superman and the Justice League cartoons as well. [00:27:12] Speaker B: What classic film or tv show have you ever watched? [00:27:21] Speaker E: Probably the original transformers, actually, because it's got such a big legacy and everybody really, really raves on about how great it is. And it just passed me by. I never saw it as a kid, so I don't. I don't really have that attachment to transformers, but I don't know. I kind of wish maybe that I did sometimes. [00:27:42] Speaker B: What is your favorite area of geekdom? [00:27:46] Speaker E: It's gonna be anime and manga. Very specifically, those two. I have a very broad range of interests, but it's those two that I come back. [00:27:55] Speaker B: What star being anime or manga? What do you recommend? [00:28:01] Speaker E: We get posed this question on a daily basis, and it's always really, really dependent on who you're speaking to. If you've got someone that's coming into anime and manga as someone that really enjoyed the Marvel movies, then I might say give one punch man a try or my hero a try. If someone's coming in with a bit more of a drama and sort of rom.com background, then, you know, there's rom coms and stuff like that available there. One that I started fairly recently is a series called Ice Guy and the Cool Girl. So it's a very adult romance, and not adult in the sense of the content, but in the sense of it's an adult cast, which is pretty unusual these days for anime and manga. And it's based in a workplace, so they're balancing romance and hobbies and, you know, having to deal with the grind of work, but also with a supernatural twist, which is kind of fun. [00:29:07] Speaker C: What is one game you reckon you can beat? [00:29:11] Speaker B: The geeky, brummy team at Call of Duty. [00:29:14] Speaker E: Probably the most recent version of Modern Warfare one. Yeah. [00:29:20] Speaker B: What is your snack of choice? [00:29:23] Speaker E: Probably those salt and vinegar kettle chips. Really good. I'm more of a savory snacker than a sweet snack. [00:29:31] Speaker C: Where can we find you online? [00:29:34] Speaker E: You can follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Just underwater part Birmingham. If you go to forbiddenplanet dot co dot UK, they've got a whole bit on there about our stores and there's a newsletter that you can sign up to where we actually get a really, really cool feature for our back issue comics quite frequently, where we'll highlight some call issues or some key issues, or if we've just brought a new collection of back issues, they'll go in there as well. So that's always a good place to keep up. And then we have our own Discord server as well, which is very anime and manga focused. The Discord server was a fun little thing that we started during the first lockdown. We wanted a way of keeping in touch with some of our regulars that don't use the main social media platforms, and that just seemed like a really fun way to do that. And it's kind of evolved over time into this absolute behemoth of a server with hundreds and hundreds of people that, you know, play games and we have all sorts of channels for various chats. People can talk about all of the latest manga chapters and anime that's coming out. We talk about video games. It's grown beyond my wildest expectations. [00:31:03] Speaker B: What is the best war hammer army? [00:31:07] Speaker E: I mean, I play space marines, which is, I guess, kind of vanilla and basic in some people's eyes. But again, I think it all depends. Some people like the crazy scary monsters and go for something like tyranids or are just absolutely unhinged and go for orcs. So, you know, it all depends on the person here. [00:31:29] Speaker B: Goodbye. [00:31:30] Speaker E: Thank you. [00:31:34] Speaker A: There's a lot of birthdays coming up this year. [00:31:36] Speaker B: I've already had mine. [00:31:38] Speaker C: A lot of birthdays every year. Yeah, that's kind of what they do. [00:31:42] Speaker D: That's a good point. That's a good point. [00:31:44] Speaker A: A lot of special birthdays. [00:31:45] Speaker D: When's your birthday? [00:31:46] Speaker A: My birthday? [00:31:47] Speaker D: 25 February. What year? Every year. [00:31:49] Speaker C: There we go. [00:31:50] Speaker A: Yes, but there are some anniversaries coming, or Annie Kin anniversaries, as Keith said earlier. So I think most of us, apart from maybe Lee, went to watch Star wars episode one, its 25th anniversary year, when George Lucas inflicted Jar Jar Binks onto humanity. World has never been the same since. So 1999 it came out. I remember watching it because I was on holiday in the Isle of Man and I went to the local cinema in the Isle of Man to watch it. So it was a very weird one because it wasn't my usual cinema, but I don't know, I actually enjoyed it a lot more than probably I did the first time I watched Star Wars Episode one. [00:32:33] Speaker C: I did, yeah. I think it does have a lot going for it. It does have. Yes. Jar Jar and all the other things that people didn't like about it to start with. [00:32:43] Speaker B: Trade negotiations, casual accent, racism. [00:32:48] Speaker A: To us. [00:32:50] Speaker C: Some of the most spectacularly irritating child acting ever recorded to film. But there are lots of great bits, too. I still think duel of the Fates is one of my favorites bits of music in any film ever. Darth Maul is just cool. Even despite having seen the video where someone sort of edited his combat together to look like a really camp dance, it's still very cool. [00:33:19] Speaker A: I love that it's Peter Sarah feud doing the voice as well. [00:33:23] Speaker B: I was expecting you to say this like it was him using his real voice. Sort of like when you have those Darth Vader talking normally because, yeah, Peter. [00:33:33] Speaker A: Sarafinowitz, somebody now needs to edit the look around you voice onto Darth. [00:33:40] Speaker B: Well, I just. All I sort of remember off the back of that is the fact that he did because obviously he was in spaced as well. He did the exact line in spaced because obviously he played, like, Simon Pegg's characters, like rivalry and everything. So they just had him, like, do that. At last I will have my revenge. Again. And it was like him sort of finding their keys in a bar, which. [00:34:06] Speaker A: I love because I think it was about two or three scenes earlier, is so were pigs rant about the awfulness of episode one? [00:34:13] Speaker B: He did it across the whole season. He just. That was like Tim's character for that entire second season was I hate the phantom menace. [00:34:21] Speaker A: Well, I think in context now, looking back, I think the rose tinting is starting to work quite a bit. I mean, every single line in that film has probably been mean to death by now, and it has become part of culture to a certain extent. But if you think about attack of the clones is probably the worst one out. The three as well, personally, might be a controversial opinion. Revenge of the Sith is much better, and it's kind of finished finishes that thripple on the high, but then you think about all the stuff that's been added into the Disneyverse since then. So we've had the Clone wars, we've had the second Clone wars series you've had. There's only been two because you had the Genode Clone wars, which is amazing and really need to watch. Then you have the Lucas George Lucas Clone wars film series, then it moves into the bad batch, then you got rebels, and it's really expanded out that time. And this is our kickoff point, really. And I think having all that extra information and having all that detail involved about how the separatists come about and how that that schism happens and how the Republic is starting to collapse in on itself because it's too old, it's too weighty, there's too much bureaucracy, no decision making makes it a much better film in context. Now, when you watch it back. [00:35:43] Speaker C: Yeah. Almost feels like the film is a spin off of the tv shows in some ways. I was watching it thinking, oh, it's Plo Koon, he's great. I like him. He hasn't got a single line in this film, but he was really cool. Yeah, no, I agree. I think Ahsoka as well, there's been a lot of stuff that does build on the mythology and the sort of background characters, and it does make you see it in a different light. And I think as well, the fact that the sequel trilogy has not gone down very well either. [00:36:23] Speaker B: See, that's what I'm wondering if people have, like, looking back on the pre trilogy because of how bad the sequel. [00:36:31] Speaker A: Trilogy was a cohesive plot across three films, which is a good point to start off. [00:36:37] Speaker D: Well, I think that's one of the big benefits of this trilogy, is that it is George Lucas. So, you know, it's his, it's what he wanted to do. And it's kind of interesting because it's 16 years since Return of the Jedi had finished, and we'd had tons of novelizations and comics in the intervening time. And this was George trying to kind of like, go, right, this is the story I want to tell, and he tells the story he wanted to tell. And I don't mind the trade negotiation things because I think that's, that's that readied me for what, the last 13. [00:37:06] Speaker A: Odd years setting, I think. And I think people forget that that was just an excuse for how we can get the emperor. [00:37:15] Speaker D: But I do like the overall message, and we do get to points later in the second and third films that if you hadn't had this first one and the kind of like this insidious build, the whole idea of, like, you know, oh, let's say Chancellor Valorem's not very good, and let's have a vote of no confidence wherever we heard that recently, you know, that whole idea of the political machinations of, like, really evil people messing up billions of people's lives because they just want to. [00:37:43] Speaker A: And that's the other thing that it turns it on its head from the original trilogy of the Jedi weren't good guys. You can see they've got their own machinations, their own kind of dealing with power in it, and there's a whole thing, and it's hidden all the way through the trilogy of basically they are losing their connection to the Force. And it's mentioned multiple times and they're getting weaker and weaker. And it's kind of as the Clone wars accelerates and goes on and on and on, they're more and more swerving away from what the point of the Jedi is. [00:38:13] Speaker D: But I do also like the fact that it is, without question a kids film. [00:38:17] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. [00:38:18] Speaker D: It kind of is great in a way that it is in much the same way. Like grown ups now freak out. This film isn't for me. It's fine. It's a kids film. It's all good. [00:38:31] Speaker B: They don't say the film isn't for me. If they did that, that wouldn't be a problem. They demand the head of Kathleen Kennedy. [00:38:38] Speaker A: It did give us the greatest ever breakdown of anything on YouTube, which is red letter Media's Mister Plinkett's Star wars episode one review, which is fantastic to watch now. But you do watch it and you go, imagine what the Disney films would be like if you go watch this again. I thought. [00:38:54] Speaker D: But I thought this as well. Phantom Menace just reminded me of where George Lucas's iconography for this kind of film comes from, because, you know, it's quite clear he's a fan of the old Flash Gordon serials, the old book Rogers serials, the Rocketman serials, you know, because you have the view screens on the trade delegation ships that are very much straight out of Flash Gordon. [00:39:17] Speaker A: And then the beautiful art deco. [00:39:18] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:39:19] Speaker D: And the whole look and the styling and even something like the pod racing sequence, which goes on for a very. It takes up a big chunk of this movie, and it really doesn't serve any great purpose in the whole film. [00:39:33] Speaker B: It led to Star Wars Episode one racer on the n 60 course as. [00:39:38] Speaker A: Well of all time. [00:39:39] Speaker D: That whole sequence. Now we are 25 years later. That whole pod racing sequence is spectacular. It's a great piece of action cinema. [00:39:49] Speaker B: And obviously, like, when you. To kind of connect that to a bit, to you saying about attack of the clones being like the worst of them, it does make me realize how many memes come from both the first and the third film, because, like, as soon as you said about pod racing, I just heard, no, that's pod racing. [00:40:07] Speaker A: I shall watch your career with great interest, Lloyd. Which is used all over the time. Something. Now there's two of them. The situation's getting worse. Now there's two of them. All those kind of lines. It's clunky dialogue, but it's there to serve a purpose, I think, which is just to join the scenes. [00:40:24] Speaker B: I think the only, like, meme I can think from the second one is probably the sand. And that's it. Because at least, like, the third one's got the hello, there. And the. [00:40:32] Speaker A: There's the women and the children, too, don't forget. [00:40:34] Speaker B: Yeah. And what's on the higher ground one is the. Is the. Obviously the other big one I've seen from third one, but. [00:40:42] Speaker A: Yeah, but again, you look back at the cast as well. So you got Liam Neeson, Ewan McGregor, Natalie Portman, Samuel L. Jackson, Brian blessed. [00:40:50] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, I forgot that Brian blessed is the boss. [00:40:53] Speaker D: Nas. [00:40:54] Speaker E: Yeah. [00:40:54] Speaker A: But it's a fantastic cast as well. And the other thing I'm going to really say is the sound design is still absolutely fantastic. The sound of those pod races make you feel like you are in that race when you hear that engine coming up. Sounds so good. [00:41:10] Speaker D: Well, I love it as well. The fact that for the most of that sequence, there's no music. It's all down to the sounds that you think. And then as you get to the end of it, then that kind of the John Williams score comes back in. It's a remarkable bit of every single. [00:41:25] Speaker A: Pod racer has its own unique sound, but it all sounds realistic at the same time. You can all imagine them. [00:41:30] Speaker D: That's the genius of Ben Burke because he's, you know, that's Star Wars. I think if. If Star wars hadn't been John Williams and Ben Burtt doing the sounds. [00:41:39] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:41:39] Speaker D: Wouldn't be what it is. There's something about the noise of a tie fighter or an x wing or a pod racer or a lightsaber ignition or a blasting fire or whatever it is. All of those sounds are what makes it come alive. [00:41:50] Speaker A: Yeah. And as you said, sam, John Williams was having a very good day when you wrote the score for Star Wars Episode one. [00:41:55] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:41:56] Speaker A: Duel of fates is. It's instantly recognizable from that first bar. [00:42:01] Speaker D: Yeah. The other thing, which is what my partner Madeline said was it was whenever she hears the bars of the 20th Century Fox fanfare. [00:42:11] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:42:11] Speaker D: She says, if Star wars music doesn't come after that, it's not right. [00:42:14] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:42:15] Speaker D: And that was one of the beauties of seeing that this, you know, having that old, modern Star wars, not having the 20th Century Fox fanfare before it, and then you have that blast of John Williams that was like, I love that. That first few seconds in the cinema, you kind of went, yeah, this is good. [00:42:28] Speaker A: Yeah. And I think it had such a backlash at the time because it was so different from the original trilogy. So you've got to think about how much practical effects you had in the first three films, and then you're moving to 90% CGI in here. There's still a lot of models and still a lot of practical effects underneath. But it was a complete culture and change of shift of how you did special effects in a movie. I mean, you look back now, some of the CGI has dated a hell of a lot, especially, like when it had the big battles on the planes and it's just one green field where somebody has just gone click, fill on the paint on a model. But it's still. It still doesn't matter to me. It's still effective. [00:43:08] Speaker D: I think. I think it set the tone for the next 25 years of filmmaking. And what it does that a lot of films don't do now was entertain. And so I can forgive chunky dialogue and know not. Not top notch special effects, but it's 25 years ago, so I don't expect it. I mean, you know. [00:43:27] Speaker A: Yeah, you don't. [00:43:28] Speaker D: Terrible when he came out. [00:43:29] Speaker A: So you don't go back now and watch film and just say, oh, that looks bad. It's like some, some stuff does hold. [00:43:36] Speaker D: I mean, you can't, you can't go back and look at the original King Kong or the original Godzilla. [00:43:40] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:43:40] Speaker D: And be like, oh, what a terrible film. That's not what you're there for. It's like, it's from its time, but it's the, it's the story and the message, and I love Star wars, so. [00:43:54] Speaker A: You know, more Star wars. [00:43:56] Speaker D: Having, having not had any for 16 years, I was quite happy. I really didn't get the whole backlash thing. It was like, you know, that's the. [00:44:03] Speaker A: Other thing as well, is looking back 25 years ago versus now, we get a constant drip feed of Star wars content. [00:44:09] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:44:10] Speaker A: So we had tales of the Sith drop last week. Bad batch has just finished. There's this mandalorian Boba Fett. None of this existed at that time. It was, you had the three films, the holiday special, and then something else was being added in at this point, and I imagine I can't complete. It was a cultural moment. [00:44:29] Speaker B: Yeah. I think that's what I was thinking is like, I wonder if, like, a lot of the backlash was down to that gap. [00:44:35] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:44:36] Speaker B: Of time. And it sort of allowed people to kind of build up all these ideas in their head about what it could be. [00:44:42] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:44:43] Speaker B: And then it comes out and it doesn't match those expectations. [00:44:47] Speaker A: You'd have the build up as well with 97, 98, 99, with the Star wars remastered editions, with all the extra CGI being put in there. So it was kind of that fer had been bubbling for three years. People like, all Star wars is back. We're getting something. [00:45:01] Speaker B: Yes. Because I think, yeah, you've obviously got that gap of time where you haven't got it. But then obviously it would. You would have had that. And obviously, I think, wouldn't they have announced that it was in production around that sort of time? So you've got those couple of years people being like, oh, man, what's it going to be like? And I think, you know, especially because you're going to get people who would have seen it the first time around, who would have been kids when they would have seen it, and now it's kind of like, defined their childhood, and it's like this nostalgia thing. Oh, we're getting it back now. And I think a lot of that is sort of. [00:45:30] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:45:31] Speaker B: Big build up to it where unlike now, where a lot of the backlash to the Star wars stuff is because there's so much of it, it's all basically just being rushed out. [00:45:39] Speaker A: If you think Star wars is the original trilogy is Gen X, and prequel trilogy is pretty much millennials, and then the new trilogy is going to be Gen Z. And maybe in 20 years time, people are going to look back at the Disney films a little bit nicer. I personally won't. [00:45:56] Speaker D: But what my biggest takeaway was, I was a little disappointed that it was the kind of remastered versions, because I was really hoping I'd get puppet Yoda. [00:46:05] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:46:05] Speaker D: And I didn't get puppet Yoda. So it wasn't the same film I saw 25 years ago, which was a little disappointing. If I'd have seen it in the same cinema, which I could have done, but they had it in a different screen, I was like, no, it's not the same, but I would have liked to have. [00:46:18] Speaker A: For me, it was my first cinema experience of Star wars. And think that's the difference as well, because that was. They don't. They didn't appear every year on rotation. It was just a case of Star wars is back in the screen and we got the remastered one. So that was my first cinema experience for Star wars, rather than my nan's VHS copy, which has been recorded off ITV with a bovril advert 30 minutes in. [00:46:43] Speaker D: I hope they do do a anniversary edition of the next two as well, because they tried it with the Phantom menace a couple of years back, where they did a 3d release. [00:46:50] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:46:51] Speaker D: I didn't bother with that because I wasn't sure that was any good, but I hope they do. [00:46:54] Speaker A: I think there's been enough for the. [00:46:56] Speaker D: 25 of the next one. [00:46:57] Speaker A: I mean, every single. I think the screenings we went to were pretty well attended. [00:47:01] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:47:01] Speaker A: And from the other screenings, I've heard it seems to be quite popular. [00:47:04] Speaker D: Yeah, well, it's pushed it back up in the box office charts, I think, in terms of the overall box office. So it's pretty cool. [00:47:11] Speaker B: It'd be interesting to see if they do, like, anniversaries for the sequel trilogy. [00:47:15] Speaker D: Don't think that we got 25 years to wait for that. [00:47:20] Speaker B: I think you're, first of all, like, the ten year anniversary, or like 15. [00:47:23] Speaker A: Now for the first one. It's been out a while. Force Awakens. When was that out? [00:47:28] Speaker B: I don't think it's been. It might maybe ten years almost. We might be coming up on it. Yeah. [00:47:33] Speaker A: 2015. So that's ten years next year. [00:47:36] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:47:37] Speaker C: Okay. [00:47:38] Speaker D: Wow, that's not good. [00:47:40] Speaker B: Yeah. Like, I imagine next year they go like, oh, let's do a Force Awakens 10th anniversary. And then no one goes, I mean. [00:47:47] Speaker C: To be fair, the Force Awakens was the best of the sequel trilogy. [00:47:50] Speaker B: Yeah, because it was just a no hope. No hope was perfectly. [00:47:55] Speaker A: That's probably the perfect description. [00:47:58] Speaker D: Just don't think too hard about the science of Starkiller. How does that work? [00:48:04] Speaker A: We got a moon. We put a big laser in it. [00:48:11] Speaker C: Right? [00:48:11] Speaker A: We've got another couple of anniversaries to talk about as well. Two 40th anniversaries this year. So the first one being. Let's go with Transformers. The first one. So first, it's still going today. It's probably on its 20th, 30th different iteration of what it is. But G one Transformers 1984 came out. Were you a fan, keys? No, I was. [00:48:37] Speaker D: I was a little bit perhaps above the target age range for it, but I was kind of into that. I liked, because I liked. I was a big into japanese robots and kind of stuff like this. So as it was a kind of hybrid of japanese toys and stuff that was more readily available because you couldn't get that kind of stuff back in the early eighties, it was practically impossible unless you were Jonathan Ross. So it was kind of cool to be able to have that kind of stuff in the UK, and it was kind of like that. They looked cool. I mean, you know, what can be better than a massive truck turning into a robot? It's, you know, it's quite. It's quite cool. So, yeah, so I kind of like the iconography and the stuff, and I kind of was not a big buyer of the Marvel comics. But, you know, some of the Marvel UK stuff was quite interesting because it was doing stuff that wasn't quite, you know, the american stuff. So it kind of took it out. It took its own life in the UK. Strangely, bizarrely, it had its own little kind of thing, which has now become. [00:49:38] Speaker A: Part of the big Alexa. [00:49:40] Speaker D: And obviously, if you read my comics of the week's things at the moment, the image and Skybound have just relaunched the image line, amalgamating it with the kind of more modern idea of it going with Gi Joe. And that's been spectacular. That's kind of taken a lot of the. The generation one stuff and kind of reimagining that, and that's been pretty good. And I've enjoyed quite a few of the Transformers games as well. The Atari Transformers game that was on PlayStation two, I think it's great. Well, this was the very first. This was one of the very first ones which was released to Atari. I think where it's Transformers, which was great. That was a really good game. So, yeah, so kind of not the target audience, but, you know, I quite liked it. [00:50:28] Speaker A: Well, it was the first. I think it was the first ever franchise that was just purely a cynical kind of capitalism. Cash in. It was basically, we have these. We have these toys. We want them to sell really well over here because it's something new, unique. It changes from a car or it changes from a tank, or it changes from a plane into a robot. [00:50:50] Speaker D: Don't mention a hand. [00:50:51] Speaker C: Good. [00:50:53] Speaker A: And how are we going to flog it? How are we going to make it big? How are we going to do it? Let's sell toys. Let's make a cartoon. Which perfect thing is selling toys off the back of this cartoon? If we can get this cartoon on as a kid show, it's a 30 minutes every single week where we release an episode, and I think that's where it came from. And it was very cynical. [00:51:15] Speaker D: I hope it was cynical enough that they went, you know, in two years, all these kids we've made fall in love with Optimus prime. We're gonna get them. [00:51:22] Speaker A: Well, this is what I was just coming onto, because the movie is one of my earliest big memories as a child, because I had it on VHS. My mom taped it over Coronation street. I've still not forgiven you for that. But it was what? It was one of the. It was a tape I played to death, and I went to watch it in the cinema, and I was heartbroken. When Optimus prime dies in Transformers the movie, if you've not seen it by now, you never get around. But it was gut wrenching. And it was because the execs just wasted went, yeah, these toys are starting to get us a bit stale now. We've sold enough. [00:51:57] Speaker D: We need to refresh the range. [00:51:59] Speaker A: We need to refresh the line. So what we're gonna do is have Rodimus prime, and we're getting voiced by Judd Nelson, because all the kids love Judd Nelson. But it was. It was that kind of thing of execs meddling to make decisions about things. [00:52:14] Speaker D: Where have we heard that before? [00:52:16] Speaker A: Where'd that come from? There was this whole thing of, everybody knows it's a very cynical cash in, and we're just creating a cartoon because they were two completely different toy ranges with the Autobots and the Decepticons. And the only reason they became together into the transformers toy line was because of the cartoon. And I still love it. It's still great to this day. It's still got one of the better themes of the eighties. I think we can all still hum it in our head. That little sound of the face spinning around between scenes. Everybody still remembers that. I think you could probably show a kid a picture of Optimus prime nowadays, and most children know who it is just because the shape is iconic. [00:52:56] Speaker B: Yeah. Someone who hasn't really watched it or engaged with the franchise at all. I recognize Optimus prime. Yeah, I. You know, it's. It's like you said, it's iconic regardless. [00:53:07] Speaker A: Yeah. And we went through all the different iterations. I've had all the Mike Bay series of Transformers kind of brought it back, and then it was kind of like, we've corrected ourselves with Bumblebee. And then they just gave up again. It was like, yeah, we'll put the Beast wars in now. And it's like, but you just got it right with Bumblebee. Why'd you go back around? The new Transformers one movie looks really good, and I actually really like the trailer for that. [00:53:29] Speaker C: It does look like fun. And, yeah, Chris Hemsworth playing Optimus, but he's not Optimus. [00:53:36] Speaker A: That's the thing. It's like their pre. Before they became Optimus Prime Megatron. [00:53:40] Speaker D: If they end the movie with Peter Cullen taking over the voice, that'll be fine. They need to do that thing like they do with Darth Vader and go, Peter, can you just record every word in the entirety of the universe so that we can just use your voice as Optimus prime forever? [00:53:52] Speaker A: Peter and Frank Welker. Just lots of money now, just so they could prefer those two voices forever, Sam. [00:53:59] Speaker D: I mean, because I'm thinking me and Ryan are kind of not a billion miles apart in age. I'm considerably, much older than Ryan, but I would thought you two were a little bit. Maybe the first generation of transformers would have passed you by. [00:54:12] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:54:12] Speaker B: So, yeah, I mean, if it's 84, then. [00:54:15] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. I was not the target audience in that. I was five years away from being born. [00:54:21] Speaker B: Yeah, I was two years, but the sentiment is the same. [00:54:27] Speaker C: Beast wars was a huge part of my childhood. I was exactly the right target age for that. When that came out, I loved the cartoon. I think it was one of the earlier sort of uses of CGI as a full animation style for the whole thing. [00:54:44] Speaker A: That and reboot were pretty much the two big CGI series of the time. [00:54:47] Speaker C: Yeah. And you can sort of watch the cartoon back on YouTube and it. The CGI looks very shoddy, as you would expect, but plot wise and character wise, it really holds up well, it's quite an exciting thing to watch because. [00:55:04] Speaker B: I never, like I said, I never watched Transformers, but I definitely remember Beast wars being big, obviously. I just didn't get into it at the time, but I just remember seeing it everywhere. [00:55:16] Speaker C: My brother and I had a lot of the toys as well, so. Yeah, you're saying Optimus prime is iconic and everyone recognizes him. For me, he's always going to be a gorilla. [00:55:30] Speaker A: But they did that in the last film. [00:55:32] Speaker C: They did. Yeah. My slight disappointment with that was that they worked. They made it a Transformers film. Instead of just going all out, this is going to be a Beast wars film. And, like, Rhinox and Cheetah didn't even. Yeah, I couldn't tell you what their voices sounded like, but some of the. [00:55:48] Speaker A: Best naming of all time. Optimus prime. Drop the e, add an a and l on the end. [00:55:53] Speaker C: Oh, yeah, good guy. [00:55:54] Speaker A: We don't go, guys. That was a very creative session to do that one. [00:55:58] Speaker D: Yeah, but I mean, you've got to admit it works. [00:56:01] Speaker A: It works. [00:56:02] Speaker D: Do not mess if it works. [00:56:05] Speaker A: So there is a special. I don't know if there's going to be enough time when we release this episode, but there is a special celebration going on. Our friends, the mockingbird. So they're showing a split screen of the pilot episode with a table read. They brought the original voice cast back to do a table read with the pilot episode being aired, plus then the next four, three episodes in the first series. And then they're showing a sneak peek of Transformers Earth Spark, which is the current iteration on cartoon going on tv at the moment. So tickets still available at the time of recording. Worth, worth of you if you never got into Transformers. Want to get into Transformers or you want to relive that? Transformers? [00:56:48] Speaker D: Yeah, I mean, it kicks off a massive thing. [00:56:51] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:56:51] Speaker D: I mean, for me, the animation of the cartoon is a little bit lacking. It's quite simple as I've got tired of that kind of filmation type stuff that I'd add in the seventies where it was Star Trek and Tarzan and stuff, where it was literally like, every time the. There was a scene, it was the same running or the same facial animations. [00:57:09] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:57:10] Speaker D: So it was a little bit of an improvement. But I wasn't a massive fan of the animated show just because it was a little. A little lacking. [00:57:17] Speaker A: I was the perfect age for it. So I'm always gonna love it. [00:57:20] Speaker D: I just wanted the robots. [00:57:22] Speaker A: Yeah, pretty cool. Everybody just forgets the 45 minutes of turning little things to try and get. [00:57:28] Speaker D: Them to transform at least those older ones are nothing compared to the newer ones. And I've still got a. A unicron that I'm too scared to turn back in its form because I'm like, I can't remember how this goes back together. And it's like Krypton factor to try. [00:57:42] Speaker A: To get it back. You could be even lazy now, and they're very expensive. But the new Roberson models where you just ask it to transform and it does it all on its own. [00:57:52] Speaker D: Do you want one? [00:57:53] Speaker A: Oh, God, I want one. Have you seen the new Megatron, which is a tank that transforms? And I'm like, oh, yeah, spare 1200 pounds might be worth it. [00:58:05] Speaker C: It would be very much the sort of toy that you're just never allowed to play with that's going on a shelf and occasionally I'll let you transform it on your birthday or something. [00:58:14] Speaker A: It's weird which ones they picked because they've done Optimus prime, grimlock, which was the weird middle segway, and now Megatron. It's like you think they'd just pick Ultra Magnus or. [00:58:25] Speaker D: I can't remember which of the original transformers it was. That used to be the SR one. No, the blackbird. Was there a black world? Was that a sky fire, star, jet fire, something like that? There was. There was one version that was. It was basically because it was the X Men jet and I wanted that as well. [00:58:43] Speaker B: That's cool. [00:58:44] Speaker C: I'm laughing. So I've still got beast wars in my head. So when you sing the blackbird one, I was thinking, I don't remember a blackbird. [00:58:52] Speaker B: Right. [00:58:53] Speaker A: And the final, final series having its 40th anniversary as well is our lovely boys in green. It is the teenage mutant hero turtles, as they were in the UK. [00:59:05] Speaker D: Yeah, but back then they were your boys in black and white. [00:59:09] Speaker A: Yes. With red bandanas. Before the red bandana, it was all. [00:59:14] Speaker D: Black and white, so I don't think it was in color. Yes. [00:59:17] Speaker A: So do you want to go through a bit of history of the start of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Eastman and Laird? [00:59:23] Speaker D: Eastman and Laird basically was just an underground. Well, not underground comic because it came through a company called Mirage and they just started doing this kind of like, comic book series. It wasn't. I didn't really. I didn't really pick it up until a bit later when they started doing collected editions because it was a bit tricky to get hold of in the UK, really. It wasn't kind of one of those big. Kind of big publishers. [00:59:46] Speaker B: It's very difficult to get it published because it had ninja in the title. Wow. [00:59:50] Speaker D: Well, this is the other thing that I wasn't a big fan of the cartoon series when it first came out because it was just, it was just. [00:59:56] Speaker A: The comics are really dark. [00:59:59] Speaker D: The comics are very much kind of like adult, kind of like, you know, that kind of underground comics thing. So it was quite dark, quite violent, quite graphic. So it was, I really enjoyed that kind of beginning storylines that they did, which are quite, quite excellent. And I like the scratchy art style as well. [01:00:18] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:00:19] Speaker D: So it's really kind of blocky and cartoony and kind of really nice. So the cartoon versions were just like, what the heck are these guys looking like? They, this looks like nothing like it. [01:00:27] Speaker A: Should, because it was kind of a joke that it's the same old rigid as Daredevil in the Bay comics, essentially. [01:00:34] Speaker D: Yeah, yeah, yeah. [01:00:34] Speaker A: It's like the same accident that creates. [01:00:37] Speaker D: Daredevil gets hit by a barrel of ooze, glowing ooze and stuff. Like, that's kind of funny. But again, like you said, they hadn't got the color coding of the various characters and stuff, and they hadn't got their names, initials on their belts. So it was kind of like, it was basically just by the weapons. You knew who. Who was who. But, yeah, when the cartoon series came. [01:00:56] Speaker A: Along, particularly in the UK, teenage mutant overdub, this bit. Turtles. [01:01:03] Speaker D: Yeah, that was a kind of like, it was, it was okay. I did, I didn't, I didn't have much love for the cartoon series, to be honest. [01:01:08] Speaker B: Like I said, it was very fun, like, going through all this when I made my censorship video and seeing, like, going back and looking up that, that total sequence and just seeing how bad the editing was in the UK version because you could tell it was a rush hour job done at the 11th hour of just like, oh, the BBFC has told us to change this. It's coming out tomorrow, so you need to edit this. And you just hear, like, the splinter taught them to be, like, nefiting. [01:01:41] Speaker C: Because. [01:01:41] Speaker B: They'Ve had to cover ninja. So they just took fighting from somewhere and pasted it. [01:01:45] Speaker D: Oh, again, it's surprising how he took off. I think. I think it was, I don't know if it was coming off the back of things like transformers and he man, all rest of it. [01:01:54] Speaker A: And you had so many other spin offs off the back of it. It's like bike mice from Mars, samurai pizza cats. All these kind of spin off shows wouldn't have existed without teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. [01:02:05] Speaker B: Street sharks. [01:02:06] Speaker A: Street sharks, yeah. [01:02:08] Speaker D: I'm just surprised at how well, it's now 40 years later and the franchise is going from strength to strength because IDW have just wrapped up their 150 issue run. Last ronin, no main title, and they've done the last ronin. They did the last ronin a few years back. They've just started the last rowing two, which is kind of the, the kind of old man Logan for teenage Mutant. [01:02:30] Speaker A: Ninja Turtles and their new generation as well. [01:02:34] Speaker D: Towards the end of June, I think they're starting a new run with Jason Aaron as the main writer, but they've got a lot of really interesting artists doing that. So they're doing an issue by issue. So they're reintroducing all the turtles. So it's kind of a, I don't know whether it's a reboot of the IDW universe and stuff, but there's a wealth of comics because they've bounced around publishers over the past 40 years as well. So there's been ones everywhere. [01:03:01] Speaker A: Interesting to see how many iterations they've gone through over the years as well. I mean, it's been one of those where every three to four to five years seems to be a new cartoon, comes out for a different audience, different designs, still, still the same core of Donatello, Michelangelo, Leonardo, Raphael, and Splinter and April O'Neill and Shredder. But they seem to refresh it so well. And it's, every time they seem to capture a new audience and it seems to be, as you said, going from strength to strength. I mean, if you think about, we have the rubber suit films in the early nineties, which the first is still. [01:03:36] Speaker D: A standout turtles film for me, that, that Jim Henson costume work and just the fact that he actually did, as far as comic adaptations go, that is one of the best comic adaptations that I've ever seen in terms of the tone and the way, and they mixed in a little bit at the kind of the more. [01:03:57] Speaker A: The second one's still pretty good. We won't talk too much about the third one. [01:04:01] Speaker D: Yeah, it's diminishing returns from that. But then I think it was the TMNT CGI movie that was out pretty. [01:04:10] Speaker A: Early to be about 2016. [01:04:12] Speaker D: Yeah, I think I really like that. That was a, that was a really nice reboot as well. [01:04:17] Speaker A: I wasn't a great fan of the, the Bay formers. [01:04:20] Speaker D: Yeah, there was something about those characters. [01:04:24] Speaker B: That just didn't quite work. I'm pretty sure that, like, that TMNT CGI movie as well, like, actually used proper voice actors to play the turtles rather than get, like, celebrities in. [01:04:34] Speaker D: Yeah, I mean, the kind of celebrities voices you had in there were people like Patrick Stewart and stuff. The other good thing about the turtles, which, which for me is one of the best things, is because he extended the idea of I like four people arcade games. So like Gauntlet or the X Men or the Simpsons, you also had the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles four player side scrolling beat em up game, which is. [01:04:56] Speaker B: Came out fairly recently. [01:04:58] Speaker A: Yeah. And they shred us. Revenge, which was still fantastic. Good to play as well to this day. Yeah, I think film wise. So we had. Yep, the original trilogy, 90, 91, 93, which was Turtlemania in the UK and across the world. [01:05:12] Speaker B: Which one had the vanilla rice theme? [01:05:13] Speaker A: Tmnt two had the vanilla rice theme. [01:05:16] Speaker B: Okay. [01:05:16] Speaker D: Turtle power in tmnt one is a banger. Still is a great song. Yeah. [01:05:22] Speaker A: Because TMNT was 2007. [01:05:24] Speaker D: 2007. Wow. [01:05:25] Speaker A: And then 2014 was when the Bay formers movie started. [01:05:29] Speaker B: It says a lot that like the second Turtles movie had vanilla Rice doing its theme and the arcade game made on a budget in 2022 gets Mike Patton to do anything. [01:05:42] Speaker A: But then we also had mutant mayhem, which is Seth Rogen's reinterpretation of the turtles. And again, that was really popular. It was really gone down. [01:05:50] Speaker D: Yeah, we were about to get a tv series based on that. So Nickelodeon, I think is the kind of the tv arm. So you had like rise of the TMNt. Rise of the. Why they make it so difficult to say Rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles. We've had a couple of other Nickelodeon series. Some I think were more traditionally animated. Some would be kind of like a mix of CGI and stuff, which are really good. [01:06:15] Speaker B: I can confirm that it is paramount that owns Tmnting because they're the ones who took bit. My censorship video. [01:06:22] Speaker D: Is Nickelodeon just a kind of subsidiary? [01:06:24] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly. [01:06:27] Speaker A: There was even an anime adaptation. There's a two episode ova which you can find if you look on the surprise me. [01:06:33] Speaker B: Weirdly enough, it feels very anime as a concept anyway. [01:06:37] Speaker A: It's completely non TMNT. They are superheroes. They have like costumes, mechs, superpowers, everything. It's worth a watch. Just because you're watching Tmnt, you go, this isn't tmnt. It just basically took four turtles and. [01:06:51] Speaker B: Made them into effective like some japanese guys who can't speak any English. Just saw the design of the turtles and went, alright, let's do something with it. [01:06:59] Speaker A: Pretty much. It's really fun to watch. But wrap up the segment also at the Mockingbird with our friends and the lovely Stacy Taylor, who has appeared on many episodes of Geeky premature first geek of the week. We are doing a special screening of season one of the 1987 cartoon Pizza break with a quiz and some fantastically terrible prizes, which you will enjoy. And then we also have ooze. It's not ooze that hasn't aged well, unfortunately, but there are some actual age era appropriate prizes you can possibly win. And then, yeah, we are screening the 1990 TMNT movie as well. [01:07:41] Speaker D: She's definitely worth a watch. [01:07:43] Speaker A: Yeah, one of the best, as you said, one of the best comic book adaptations of all time. But yes. So that's three franchises hitting their anniversaries this year. [01:07:52] Speaker D: Makes you feel old. [01:07:59] Speaker A: It's time for our regular roundup of our favorite geeky thing since our last recording. So I'm gonna pick Sam, start off with. [01:08:11] Speaker C: Okay, so this is episode slightly late, but I only watched it last night, so going with it. But one of my absolute favourite animated programs is finished recently, which is Archer. It had its final season a few months ago now, but they just had one final hour long episode to round it all off, which I finally got around to watching last night. And it's brilliant. I love the show anyway. H. John Benjamin. I will happily listen to that man voicing anything. And his character is just ridiculously funny all the time. He's so comfortably in that over the top, but childish but still very competent and knows it kind of character. And yeah, and the finale was full of everything that you'd sort of want. It was Archer being very selfish, but also still sort of maturing a little bit. Lots of nice little callbacks to earlier series and like returning characters. There's a guy called Rip, Rip Ripley, I think his full name was voiced by Patrick Warburton, who's also another guy that I think, yeah, and yeah, a few other characters that you just haven't seen for a while popping up again. [01:10:01] Speaker A: I was a massive archers fan up until the kind of coma series again. That's when I lost it. [01:10:09] Speaker C: Yeah. So there were a few series when he was in the coma where they went down into a different genre, and I think it was interesting seeing what they were trying to do. And in some ways I do think it worked quite well. It was taking those characters and putting them in a different setting that made it more original and sort of gave them an excuse to play around with different genres. But at the same time, it just works so well as a spy series and it was lacking something when you took it out of that context. But then once he recovered from the coma, he was back to being a spy. And they sort of came back with this wonderfully daft subplot of them trying to kind of reinvent their public image. [01:10:57] Speaker A: So. [01:10:58] Speaker C: So they had some pr people just following them around, completely disrupting everything they were doing. So, yeah, if you haven't seen Archer, it's all on Netflix. It's well, well worth watching. And if you have and you haven't caught up with finale yet, it just rounds it all off very nicely and thoroughly recommend it. [01:11:20] Speaker A: Gonna say the original voice cast, and I don't know how many of them probably stick around, but it was absolutely fantastic because you had Jessica Walters, who just come off arrested development at the time. Chris Parnell, who pops up the new fallout tv series. Aisha Taylor, who is fantastic. Judy Greer, who's just wonderful in everything she ever does. Jeffrey Tambor pops up, which again, ever rested development link Lucky Yates as Krieger is one of the greatest characters ever created. [01:11:50] Speaker C: And on that note as well, there's a recurring side character called Slater, who is voiced by and is just an animated version of Christian Slater. And he's sort of one of the main antagonists in the finale. So it's good to see him put back up again as well. [01:12:09] Speaker A: But, yeah, I gotta say, for the original series, the first four series are some of the most golden animation I've ever seen. And I still quote it to this day. Seemed like any loud turn for man seek. That's it. I mean, Keith, I imagine you watched arch back in the day. [01:12:31] Speaker D: I've watched a few. I'm massively behind, though, because I just lost track of it. And I don't know why I haven't caught up with it, but, yeah, I haven't. [01:12:40] Speaker B: Yeah, kind of the same as Keith. I've watched a few, like, the first few episodes of it and not caught up with it, but it was good when I saw it. [01:12:48] Speaker C: Yeah, it's very bingeable. So if you did get back into. [01:12:51] Speaker D: It, for some reason, I made sure I kept on watching some venture brothers instead. I don't know why, but that was just because it was that Jonny Quest riff. Yeah, it was a very similar kind. [01:13:01] Speaker B: Of style of animation in my case. It was just like, obviously, it spawned so many memes and seeing around, and I saw it was on Netflix and was like, oh, I might as well watch this and sort of watch the office. But because I'm bad at keeping up with tv shows, like, I just didn't follow and continue with it. So see this? [01:13:19] Speaker A: This is how we get out. [01:13:20] Speaker B: Yes. [01:13:21] Speaker A: My favorite ever. Cause I'm DVD. The original series. My favorite ever bonus episode of anything of all time was when they take the Archer pilot and replace Archer with a Velociraptor. They don't change anything else. It's just Archer as a velociraptor. And he spends the entire time just roaring all the way through it. Most genius bonus episodes ever. I heard you. I wish you. There's probably clips on YouTube somewhere, but it's basically just Archosaurus and it's just wandering around it. But yeah. Oh, I'm sad it's kind of finished, but I'm glad it has actually got a finale and an ending. [01:14:00] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:14:01] Speaker A: Some of these shows that just run on forever never seem to close off. [01:14:04] Speaker C: Yeah. I think after Mallory passed away as well. Yeah. It's kind of run its course, I think. And like you say, it's nice to close it off properly rather than. [01:14:17] Speaker A: Yep. [01:14:19] Speaker C: Awesome. [01:14:20] Speaker A: So, Archer on Netflix. Lee, how about yourself? [01:14:24] Speaker B: So I've been playing quite a few games lately, some of which I can't talk about, but I think the game that's probably taken up, like, a lot of my time and a lot of my brain, just a lot of my brain in general, is Final Fantasy VII rebirth. So it is the second part of the Final Fantasy VII remake trilogy. So this is basically like the rest of disc one from after remake, which did the entire. Just the midgar section of Final Fantasy VII. This does everything from Midgar up into. Until the end of disc one, I assume. I haven't finished it yet, but I have heard vaguely that that is roughly where it stops, at a very infamous scene. And apparently something happens with it, but I don't know yet. And I very deliberately avoided reading any spoilers. But yeah, I've been having a lot of fun with that. It's just. It's really kind of interesting to see how they've taken a lot of the locations and setting, you know, and events of the original Final Fantasy VII and just sort of built on every. Everything's just been made bigger and more expansive in so many different ways. So bits that were like minor plot points are now expanded into entire arcs. And one area that was like a little sort of side village that you went to once and you fought the Turks there, and then you kind of, like, you leave and it was just like a sort of single screen with like, some ruins is now an entire region of the map with its own brand new storyline and all this sort of stuff. And it's just. It's honestly kind of impressive, like how much they've put into this because they. [01:16:17] Speaker A: Could have just done a really lazy remake of this, couldn't they? Could. They could have just done that. Here's new shiny graphics. The entire structure of the game were not changing and everybody would have been happy with that. Final Fantasy VII is one of the greatest games of all times. The original release. But it sounds like they have taken care with these. [01:16:34] Speaker B: So you've got like, I'm trying to think of some of the specific things. So, like the gold saucer, for instance, from Final Fantasy VII. So big theme park area that you go to and you kind of. You kind of hang out with some, like one of your party members will kind of hang out with you as you kind of go around the thing. But they've made it. This massive area with like, each area has now got its own, like distinct mini game and story bit that happens at that point in the story. Like the goofy little haunted hotel that you stay at in the gold saucer is now like, just has a lot more going on. So, like, they initially, obviously, the original game being very sort of low poly, you had like, the idea was it was sort of like a bellhop hanging from the ceiling was who you spoke to. And it all looked very kind of cartoony in the original graphics. They've kind of kept it, but they've got obviously now it looks a lot more realistic and like, it's very. They've sort of played up the cheesiness of this as a concept. And then you get to go into the room and see what's in the room and there's so much like cheesy horror stuff inside the room. Like there's a little chest in the corner and you can open the chest and these eyeballs pop out and it's just very. And like, there's like just whole area, like I said, whole areas that are just. Now there's a whole sequence of the Costa del Sol where you've got to like find beachware, which was not in the original. And it's just. [01:18:06] Speaker A: Have they kept the controversial cross dressing cloud? [01:18:11] Speaker B: Oh, that was in remake. That was in the Midgar section. So that was another thing that they'd massively built on because obviously there's a lot of questionable stuff around that whole sequence of wouldn't it be funny if we put cloud in a dress? Whereas this time around they kind of played it up as like, what if cloud was in drag and we played it up for all the camp that that's worth so it was very good sort of shift in sensibilities while keeping the sort of core joke there. And a lot of the joke is less like, oh, wouldn't it be funny if we put a man in a dress? It's more like, what if we put cloud specifically in a dress? With all his awkwardness and all his attempts to be stoic and we've made him fabulous and he's just sort of like, God, I hate this. But obviously that's in remake, but rebirth. Like I said, just like. And one thing as well, I'm really pleased by. They made Kate Sith Scottish, but they got an actual scottish actor to play him because I realized while listening to his voice, I was like, there's a few things he's saying that, like, they'd only know this if they actually got a scottish person in. So I looked him up and yes, he's actually Scott. [01:19:27] Speaker A: Good to hear. I think the only problem for me is the gap between these games is I think it's. They're saying it's going to be about five years before the next one now. I mean, the final discovery, it's been. [01:19:41] Speaker B: Four years since the last one, so I could see them probably having a similar thing, especially if like, a lot of the assets now exist. [01:19:50] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:19:50] Speaker B: From the previous one. So I can see them sort of speeding up the process with it. The next one would have to be like disc two and three. Yeah. But obviously I think what people tend to forget is that disc three is just the crater. [01:20:04] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:20:04] Speaker B: So I think just all the fmvs that surround the crater just were so big that they had to shove it onto a third disc. Otherwise they probably could have done it onto it. But, yeah, been having a lot of fun with that. And it's just like, you know, the sort of different colored chocobos you get in each region and the different ways that you obtain all the chocobos as well. And, like, they've improved chocobo racing, so now it's just Mario Kart with chocobo. Like, even the music, I was like, this is just Mario Kart music. Arrow Square not getting in trouble with Nintendo. [01:20:38] Speaker A: It's making me wonder, are they going to do Final Fantasy VIII after they finished Final Fantasy VII? [01:20:42] Speaker B: I don't think so, because it was. [01:20:44] Speaker A: Such an emo game that one. It was all kind of depressing and sad. And I know Final Fantasy VII has very dark and depressing and sad moments, but it's got kind of more of a comedy tone across the top. [01:20:55] Speaker B: There have been rumors about a Final Fantasy ix remake. I don't know how true they are. [01:21:00] Speaker A: But I mean, I actually quite like that. I don't think it's a bad game. Just very emo. [01:21:05] Speaker B: Yeah, I don't think I'll be touching that one. But, yeah, having a lot of fun with that. And I've reached Nibelheim is where I'm at right now. So just about to. Just about to meet Vincent Valentine, played by Matt Mercer himself, of course. [01:21:24] Speaker A: Keep those paychecks covered in. [01:21:26] Speaker B: He was been like a massive fanboy about playing that role. [01:21:30] Speaker A: Wanted to mention some slight segue off for Final Fantasy 16 because somebody got announced today for the next Galactus movie, which I found absolutely hilarious, which is Ralph Innocent, who is finchy from the. [01:21:41] Speaker B: Office, is now going to be playing. [01:21:43] Speaker A: A Yorkshire Galactus in space. [01:21:46] Speaker B: Okay, so obviously, you know, he was in Final Fantasy 16, as you said. And honestly, like, casting him was genius because Sid is just such a brilliant character in Final Fantasy 16. The whole time, it's just. He's just Ralph Einstein. Like, I've just got this image of. [01:22:05] Speaker A: Galactus tried to throw a shoe over a pub in the middle of something. [01:22:09] Speaker B: But the thing that's great about it is, like, I think the thing that you can point to, to sort of see how he's going to play Galactus is just look up Sid using his summon powers in Final Fantasy 16, where he's Rammur, who's like the big lightning summon from the Final Fantasy series. So he's this massive guy with a massive beard, and he's surrounded in lightning, and he's huge. But then he speaks, and it's just Ralph Eileson's voice coming out of him. [01:22:39] Speaker A: Because it's just going to be weird for, like, galactus to be from Yorkshire. [01:22:44] Speaker C: I think it's great casting. So I'm sure he's perfectly capable of doing an accent that isn't a Yorkshire accent, but his voice is so kind of deep and gravelly. [01:22:56] Speaker D: And it has been established that space has a north. [01:22:58] Speaker A: Yes, but I'm just hoping they keep the same level of kind of at the end of eternals. When the judge turns up, can I remember his name? The big, big celestial turns up, and everybody goes. I'm hoping they do something similar. When Galactus turns up, he's not just gonna be this, like, 70 foot tall coming up in a suit with a tie. [01:23:27] Speaker B: No, I think they should have, like you said, have this bit sort of big, grand entrance. And they just go, all right, lads. [01:23:34] Speaker A: Cup at sea. Oh, yeah, sorry. Final Fantasy seven re. [01:23:40] Speaker B: Rebirth. [01:23:40] Speaker A: Rebirth. [01:23:41] Speaker B: I'm very curious as to what they're gonna call the third one, because they can't use reunion, which is supposed to be obviously a big arc word within the story. They can't use reunion because they slapped that onto the crisis core remaster. So I'm like, I don't know what. [01:23:57] Speaker A: So, Michael, if somebody's there with the dictionary going, re yeah. [01:24:00] Speaker B: My suggestion is you just take metal gear rising and call it revengeance, and then just. [01:24:09] Speaker A: Keith, how about yourself? [01:24:12] Speaker D: I'm going to continue my pattern of doing things that are just a bit off and not really what they should be, because we've already been talking about 40th anniversaries, and there's something about this particular year that I kind of seem to revisit every so often. So my one geek thing this week is going to be 1984. The entire year. [01:24:37] Speaker B: Oh, not the George Orwell. [01:24:38] Speaker D: Not the George Orwell movie or the book, but the entire year of 1984. Mostly because it was such a pivotal year for me as a person, and I think it formed a lot of my loves as time goes on, because it was a year that had a phenomenal range of films. I'm not gonna say. I'm not gonna say for. Identity theft was a big year for. [01:25:04] Speaker A: Me because I took my first steps in my. [01:25:08] Speaker D: So musically it was great. There was lots of great music out there. There was lots of great things happening with comics. Obviously, we talked about two of them already. The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle comics started, the Marvel run of transformers started. Alan Moore started writing on Swamp thing. [01:25:25] Speaker A: Marvel, Star wars comics. [01:25:28] Speaker D: Oh, they've been here for ages before then. And there was kind of like, a lot of proliferation of kind of like, smaller independent comics started. We had things like Zot was going and all the rest of it. So there was a lot of interesting things going on in comics thing, but the big kind of one, in terms of the kind of ongoing thing that I come back to all the time is all the films that came out in 1984, which are cast iron classics, in my opinion. One of which I mentioned to my partner last night while we were watching an episode of the Top of the Pops, which she's never seen, which I've got to correct within, like, a few. [01:26:03] Speaker B: Days, which she's never seen. Top of the pops? [01:26:05] Speaker D: No, she's never seen. She's never seen this film, which is called Streets of Fire, which is rock and roll musical. You've never seen Streets of Fire? You must correct this, Keith. [01:26:14] Speaker B: Streets rage was 1991 Streets of Fire. [01:26:18] Speaker D: But I look back at all the films that kind of came out in that year. Terminator, Gremlins, Ghostbusters, Footloose, 1984 itself, Bucaroo, banzai, top secret. The list goes on. June, the original David lynch version of June. So there's so many great things that I just kind of think, oh, my God, 1984 was just a year of great thing after great thing that I kind of come back to. [01:26:43] Speaker A: And Caravan of courage and Ewok adventure. [01:26:46] Speaker D: Well, yeah, we can talk about that, but it's just, if you're looking for films or cartoons or comics that just seem to have hooked into the kind of global consciousness and become cultural touchstones, 1984 just seems to have been that year that just kind of hit the sweet spot and has continued to reverberate throughout my life. And I kind of looked back at it back ten years ago, and I kind of looked at some of these things and kind of looking back, and now 40 years, seems maybe they start to lose their shine. Well, actually, I'm going to think, well, you know, the Marvel have just republished roman micronauts, but micronauts, the new missions started in 1984 as well, and people like Blue Devil appeared for the first time in DC comics and stuff. [01:27:37] Speaker A: So basically, what 1999 would have probably beaten for us. [01:27:41] Speaker D: Yeah, Purple Rain. My daughter's looking to watch Purple Rain Prince, because, I mean, what a great album that Purple Rain is. Purple Rain, a movie, whatever anyone else thinks. He's a classic. It's great. Stop making sense. With David Byrne and talking heads, there's just. I don't know what it is. It just seemed to be this kind of cosmic, what do they call them? Conjunction of just comics and tv and film and books and all the rest of it are just kind of like congealed into 1984 being this. I think when 84 happened, there was the outline of the watcher in the sky at the time. And it's one of those kind of like key moments that just kind of seem to be a fixed point for me, that I just kind of seem to kind of not escape and keep revisiting. [01:28:32] Speaker B: So I was trying to think, like, what about games in 1984? And I'm looking it up and basically nothing. [01:28:40] Speaker A: So I think that was just post the Atari crash. [01:28:43] Speaker B: Yeah. Which obviously mostly affected America. [01:28:45] Speaker D: But the problem will be is that probably the version of 1984 games that you've got would be what anything could. Something that people had written themselves out of the back pages of Zap 64. [01:28:57] Speaker B: Exactly. [01:28:58] Speaker D: Or was sold to you on a cassette in the local garage. [01:29:01] Speaker A: So we kind of dizzy game there. Was always a dizzy game for everyone. [01:29:05] Speaker D: There'd have been something, you know, there'd have been some kind of sailor wall kind of knockoff or whatever it is, or there was. That would have been the Ghostbusters game on the Commodore 64. [01:29:14] Speaker A: Well, I'm just looking for the tv as well. And, my God, some of the stuff the family nest came out this year and then threads. So a bit of. A. Bit of a swerve there, but. [01:29:23] Speaker D: Well, there's that kind of thing as well. We're right in the middle of the kind of like nuclear Armageddon scare. [01:29:29] Speaker B: There were, in fact, no Disney games in 1984. [01:29:32] Speaker A: What? [01:29:33] Speaker B: Because Dizzy started in 1987. Wow. [01:29:36] Speaker A: Wow. I thought Dizzy was much earlier than that. [01:29:39] Speaker D: Yeah, well, it might have been, but there'd have been like Spectrum Games and Commodore 65. I remember kind of hanging out at friends houses who had got Commodore sixty four s and playing terrible, terrible games. Yeah, there's probably a nemesis, the Warlock game or something. We had 2000 id games that came out on cassettes that were. Just. [01:29:56] Speaker B: Because I was thinking, oh, did the. Did the NES release in the US in 1984? No, 1985. [01:30:02] Speaker D: Yeah, it's still a little bit earlier before we get into that kind of next console, because it would have. [01:30:07] Speaker B: The Famicom would have been out. [01:30:08] Speaker D: Yeah. [01:30:09] Speaker B: But it would have launched the year before in Japan. [01:30:12] Speaker A: Yeah. So it's. A lot of us. Tv was starting to leak over into the UK. Well, we had. We had the Ringo star era of Thomas the Tank engine. [01:30:22] Speaker B: Well, very important. [01:30:23] Speaker D: Airwave v. Well, that was because of the 1984 olympics. So one of the networks put V the series and it was v. And then you had V the final battle, which was what? Which was. But I highly recommend you have a quick look on Wikipedia and see what film and music and stuff came out and have to visit the films particularly. [01:30:48] Speaker B: Turns out I was looking at the wrong page. Jet set Willie came out in 1984. [01:30:52] Speaker D: There you go. [01:30:53] Speaker B: Host grossing arcade game was pole position. [01:30:56] Speaker A: Tracking seals came out, had a cartoon show, pole position. It did think it was one of the first video games that had a cartoon series off. [01:31:05] Speaker D: 1984 just keeps giving. [01:31:08] Speaker B: Yeah. And I believe it's like. Although originally launched in 82, but I think maybe worldwide released in 84, but, yeah, like, obviously that's one of the sort of classic racing games that sort of kicked off the whole genre. So. [01:31:22] Speaker D: So, yes, that's. That's my one geek thing. One geek, yeah. So how about you, Ryan? What's yours? [01:31:29] Speaker A: To have something physical for a change. So last week, Keith and I were at worlds apart Birmingham and we were doing free comic book day and it was Star wars day as well. But we had a little segment on a section of the shop which is just being refurbished and remodeled. And lots and lots of stuff was there. Can you work out which area of the shop this was? Keith? [01:31:53] Speaker D: Yes, I know exactly what it is that you're going to be revealing. [01:31:57] Speaker A: So I purchased and assembled. Oh, you built it too? [01:32:01] Speaker D: Wow. [01:32:02] Speaker A: My first gunpla, which stands for Gundam plastic something. Where is it? It's Gundam plastic assembly, I think, which is Gundam kit. I'll pop them out. But basically this was my evening for the last 2 hours. Last night for 2 hours was building this little chap. So if you've seen, you won't be able to see one camera. If you've seen the original Gundam series. [01:32:30] Speaker D: See if I can get him a bit closer. [01:32:31] Speaker A: You can get him. You can grab him if you want. Be careful. But yeah, so if you have the original Gundam series, this is Gundam RX 78, two prototype close combat mobile suit, which is this Gundam here. So I. Yeah, so it's basically you get like. It's a bit like an airfix kit if you remember those from your youth where you get your plastic sprues, you get your little nippers and then you assemble it away. [01:33:03] Speaker D: Nippers, I like that. [01:33:05] Speaker A: But however, the good thing was all of it is now no glue, no screws. No, it's all clicked together assembly and in color. [01:33:12] Speaker D: So you haven't got to paint it. [01:33:13] Speaker C: Yes. [01:33:14] Speaker A: So here's what's known as a high grade kit. So there are lots and lots of different grades. So there is SD, which is super deformed. There is eG, which is anti grade. There is HG, which is high grade, which is this one. Then it goes up to real grade, master grade. And I think perfect grade is the ultimate set. So he is kind of like the entry is basically never assembled anything ever in my entire life. Just want something really simple to clip together. High grade is what they recommend you start off with because it's kind of a bit more intricate, a bit more parts. You get the instructions together and then you get little things to put alongside it. But yeah, so if. [01:33:55] Speaker B: Depending on how many more of these you want to do, if you want to either ruin your life by buying more. [01:34:04] Speaker A: Yes. [01:34:04] Speaker B: Or like, you know, you want to avoid this place because you don't want to get into it. Akiobara in Tokyo. [01:34:12] Speaker A: Yes. [01:34:12] Speaker B: Has like entire shops that are just these. [01:34:15] Speaker A: Yes. [01:34:16] Speaker B: And like replacement parts and just all the various accessories for like things like where you would need to sort of assemble them with additional things. [01:34:25] Speaker A: There is a massive modding scene. You can get little lights, smoke effects everywhere. [01:34:29] Speaker D: You get little stand in his. [01:34:32] Speaker A: You have to buy that separately. So this is. [01:34:34] Speaker D: You can make him like jump and fly and stuff. [01:34:40] Speaker A: Yeah. So. But the assembly wise, it was really nice and just relaxing for a weird kind of thing. I'm just chilling. I think this is a one to 144 scale. [01:34:49] Speaker D: Oh, the articulation is nice. [01:34:51] Speaker A: Yeah, this. It's one of the best models I've ever put together for articulation. I think this model is about 410 years old. It's one of the re releases because there's multiple different versions. As you can imagine, being the most popular and the most recognizable gundam. This one's got lots and lots of different models. [01:35:09] Speaker B: Did surprise me to see the original Bandai logo on the box until I saw that logo, which I was like, okay, that's what I expected, the Bandai Namco one. [01:35:19] Speaker A: But I just thought as an activity, it's actually quite fun to do. And you get something really nice at the end of it. And there's lots of different weapons. He comes with lots of different articulation you can do. I think he's one of the few that you can do in the actual Gundam. Arms raised, posed, so you can make him look like the original series anime cover. And he's supposed to be closer to the anime style design than some of the more realistic ones. That's supposed to be really clean lines. [01:35:47] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, it is simple. I think it is very similar to the one that they had in a diaper as well. [01:35:53] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:35:53] Speaker B: Which is obviously the big life size Gundam that they've got in Japan. [01:35:56] Speaker A: You can actually buy a special kit for that one as well, which is slightly different, which has got all the kind of extra bits. [01:36:01] Speaker B: I know that they basically swap out that model every few years because somehow Japan has multiple full size gundams now. [01:36:08] Speaker D: Why wouldn't you? I think I've got some not. I don't think there were these. They were kind of. They're rubber based. [01:36:14] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:36:15] Speaker D: So a bit not quite hard plastic, but I've got a few of these Gundam like that. But I keep looking at these boxes and I'm like. [01:36:23] Speaker A: For less than pound, 15 quid. [01:36:25] Speaker D: Yeah. [01:36:26] Speaker A: 2 hours of enjoyment putting it together. And to be honest, I think it looks a lot better than some of the kind of black series Star wars figures you can get or just generic figures you can buy nowadays. [01:36:38] Speaker C: I would. [01:36:38] Speaker D: I think if I was going to go for one. I'd probably want to go for one. It was a 1100 size. [01:36:42] Speaker A: Yeah, there's a 1100 scale. I think the biggest scale is one by 48, which stands about huge. This tall, which I keep looking at. I'm like, viv will kill me if I started getting really into these. But I just thought, what entertainment can you get for less than 15 quid for 2 hours and still end up with something really nice and really tactile and really pose for left and you can. [01:37:04] Speaker D: You could make an animation with him. [01:37:06] Speaker A: Yes. [01:37:06] Speaker D: Stop motion animation. That's your task for next. [01:37:09] Speaker A: Well, now I've got that, of course. Need to buy a couple of Zaku's room to fight. So you can't just have one. But it's kind of just a really nice. Just brain focused activity. Marble kits as well. [01:37:25] Speaker C: Yeah. So, yeah, I've mentioned on the show before, I've got some Warhammer type stuff now. There is something very nice and mindful and relaxing about putting them together. I enjoy the painting as well, which is a similar sort of experience. But there is something nice about the assembly and sort of starting out with say, a big sheet of sprue and just gradually creating it into something. But it sounds like this is a quite a lot cheaper than Willhammer and B poseable. If you want something, you can have more as a display piece. I think this probably works a bit better. [01:38:04] Speaker B: Yeah, I was thinking it's a lot cheaper than the Ligo that I have quite an extensive collection of. [01:38:10] Speaker A: And it seems to be. I think it's a thousand yen is the starting from price in Japan, but it's usually about a tenner over here in the UK. [01:38:16] Speaker B: So about the same price. [01:38:17] Speaker A: Yeah. And it goes up to about. If you're looking at the perfect grade ultimate editions with all the lights and bells and whistles and smoke generation and all that kind of stuff. They're about pound 250 quid. So it's a really nice, easy entry point. I mean, for that one, I would say that that was kind of. I managed to build it. The instructions were pretty clear. [01:38:38] Speaker B: It's good quality. [01:38:39] Speaker A: It's good quality and really poseable as well. Which is really surprising because I thought it was going to be one of those. You clip it together and it's like sticking that pose for eternity. But yeah, so that was my. [01:38:50] Speaker D: He's gonna have a bit of problem getting through doors with his gun ram unclips. [01:38:55] Speaker A: So you can actually swap the hands out on it as well. So you can like have it holding the weapons, etc. It comes with lots different accessories. [01:39:02] Speaker B: Wasn't there like another. There is another way of gun. [01:39:06] Speaker A: Yeah, and the sword in the back. So that's why he's got. Only got one of the things in the back, because you can have him with two swords, etcetera. It's pretty cool. Good fun. [01:39:18] Speaker D: Don't get me started on them. [01:39:21] Speaker A: Got enough activities to get on with, but I think at anime con they're gonna have a lot of these anyway as part of the Fibon planet store. So if it wets your whistle. [01:39:30] Speaker B: I mean, the only Bandai Namco figure I'm waiting for is the Lingxiao, you nendoroid. But you know. [01:39:38] Speaker A: There'S plenty of places you can get it from. But worlds apart, Birmingham do have a really good selection if you wanted to get into. And I think Joel and Ick are very knowledgeable. [01:39:47] Speaker D: Yeah, it's probably a good place to start if you just want to get advice on where the best place to start your building is. [01:39:58] Speaker A: I said, hey. [01:40:02] Speaker E: Hey. [01:40:02] Speaker A: Yay. What's going on? [01:40:06] Speaker D: I said hey, what's going on? It's geeky goings on. [01:40:09] Speaker A: It is geeky goings on. It's been multiple years since we added this feature, but we thought we'd bring it back and start telling you about what's going on in Birmingham and the local area. So to start us off, we will go with Sam. [01:40:25] Speaker C: Well, from the 25 June to the 31 August, there is. Hamilton is coming to Birmingham. Fantastic. Huge production. I've seen it a couple of times in London. My mum is a huge fan and has seen it, I think, upwards of 20 times now. So this is the touring show. I can't remember where it's been already, but it's. Yeah, coming to Birmingham in June. It's basically the story of Alexander Hamilton, who was one of the founding fathers of America. And the first act is sort of telling the story of the birth of America as an independent country. It's all about the war of independence, and then the second act is about them sort of establishing the government of America and running throughout all of it is Hamilton's personal life, his rivalry with Aaron Burr and with Thomas Jefferson. But Lin Manuel Miranda, who wrote all the music to it, has set it all to this incredibly complex, lyrically athletic hip hop and rap soundtrack, which normally wouldn't be my sort of thing, but I love all the songs in Hamilton. I was doing a couple of them at a karaoke thing the other week. The soundtrack is amazing, the production is incredible and definitely recommend it. I'm going to see it myself. I've got air tickets. [01:42:08] Speaker A: Yeah, it's on a good run as well, for about ten weeks. Plenty of opportunity to get over and watch it. [01:42:13] Speaker C: Yeah. And we got our tickets relatively late and there were still not many cheap ones, but there's still plenty of tickets available, so. Yeah. Awesome. [01:42:23] Speaker A: Thank you, Lee, how about yourself? [01:42:25] Speaker B: So we have at the Mac, we have the real Emile clue. So this is the movie that is based on cluedo famous board game, which I didn't know this, but the creator is from Birmingham. And what I've noticed about this is that it's slightly missed. It missed the anniversary of the board game. It's 80 years. Almost 80 years, but just 81 years is what it is. But it's almost like 40 years since the film came out. So it's kind of sort of sitting between the two anniversaries. And obviously, you know, if you're not aware of Cluedo somehow, obviously was a board game where, you know, you detective board game. Everyone has to figure out whodunit, you know, figure out who did it with what weapon and in what room. And obviously there was a movie made in 1985 starring Tim Curry, famously, and that is what the Mac are going to be showing, along with a small special menu inspired by both the board game and the film adaptation. [01:43:32] Speaker A: Lots of mustard, I'm assuming. [01:43:34] Speaker B: Everything's just slathered in mustard. Yeah. So that's what the Mac are doing. It's got, like, screening of the film, special menu where every byte is a clue and every course is an adventure. [01:43:49] Speaker A: Sound interesting? I'm wondering which version of clue they're going to. [01:43:52] Speaker B: Yeah, that's what I was thinking. Cause, like, they famously made how many endings for it? [01:43:57] Speaker A: Four or five. So it's going to be interesting which version they pick. [01:44:01] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:44:02] Speaker D: Cool. [01:44:03] Speaker B: Keith, did I say what day that's on? That's on the 14 June. For Mac, Friday the 14th seems to. [01:44:09] Speaker D: Be going backwards in time on the 8 June, which is a Saturday. So hopefully it'll be a bit like today and be nice and sunny. You'll have the opportunity to see Barbie, one of the best films of last year, which was denied the oscars it deserved over some film about some guy with nuclear things about him, I don't know. But this much better, much better film with Margot Robbie. And who's winning over my affections, Ryan Gosling as a plastic man is going to be screened outdoors at the Birmingham Botanical Gardens in partnership with the Flatpak Festival and Mockingbird Cinema. They're encouraging everybody to come along dressed in pink, or to unleash your creativity with your own take on a blooming barbie, whatever that means. I don't know. Flowers probably involved. Of course there will be prosecco, but there will also be cocktails, mocktails, delicious street food. [01:45:07] Speaker A: I believe it's a wonderful pea from smoke and ash in and all of. [01:45:11] Speaker D: This will be accompanied by a live dj set. So the screening itself will start at 730, but because it's outdoors, don't forget to bring along your chairs, blankets and other bits and pieces to give yourself a cozy, lovely movie watching experience. And as it's England, it might be best to pack an umbrella as well, just in case. But fingers crossed it'll be as glorious as the movie itself. [01:45:36] Speaker A: Awesome. Thank you. I've got two because I mean greedy. So on the 28 June at the O two Institute block party, I'll celebrate an anniversary as well. It is 20 years of their amazing album silent alarm. [01:45:51] Speaker D: 20 years. [01:45:52] Speaker A: 20 years since silent alarm came out, which is their seminal debut album, Klei Oka Ricke and the team, we put that together, they're gonna do a selection of their greatest hits. Sam and I were lucky to go to watch them at the Zero two academy last year with the new lineup. I think they got a new guitarist, a new drummer at the time, but it is, it's one of the greatest albums of all time. It stands up to this day. There is no, nothing I cannot not say about that album. It's an amazing album, amazing soundtrack. Plus I think Bach party kind of don't get the reputation they deserve to a certain extent. They had some of the biggest hits of that mid two thousands to late two thousands. [01:46:36] Speaker B: And I think, yeah, between that and the second album as well. [01:46:39] Speaker A: Yeah, weekend in the city, there's like some fantastic tracks across those two, really, really recommend them. And then finally, of course, coming up on Saturday the 15th and Sunday the 16 June is anime Con UK at the NEC. If you want to know what's going on and what happened, watch last issue episode. We had Pete Birkin from anime Con who explained it all. What's going on, what's the kind of feel of the show? But there's going to be guest panels, cosplay, catwork, silent disco, karaoke, cosplay, after party, just celebrating anime, manga, k pop, j pop and I think in partnership with Birmingham Anime Film Festival, which is under Lucky Bird, there'll be a screening room as well. So we'll be screening some films, previews, trailers, etcetera. So gonna be really fun there. Plus we'll be wandering around as geeky Brimmy at the same time. So we. [01:47:31] Speaker B: I wasn't informed of it. [01:47:33] Speaker A: We're doing two things, so we're wandering around. We're going to be doing a live podcast and apparently we're going to be in a very interesting location for said live podcast recording. [01:47:43] Speaker B: The car park? [01:47:46] Speaker A: Not the car park. The Vikings are still in the car park, I think, long last time, but. [01:47:50] Speaker B: Yeah, they'll just be still hanging around after uk games expire. [01:47:55] Speaker A: Yeah. So that's coming up Saturday the 15th, Sunday the 16 June at Animecon at the NEC, and also there's going to be another outdoor screening at botanical Gardens coming up in August. More information coming out on soon, but it's a Ghibli treat as part of Bath 2024, so keep your ears peeled. Thanks for joining us on the geeky Brummy issue for year eight, not year three. Like I said last time around, it's all these years of blending together had far too many anniversaries. I think that's what it is. But Lee, where can we find you online? [01:48:35] Speaker B: You can find me on YouTube of Ferret, where I recently released a video about the Tomb Raider expansions. And as I said earlier in the show, I will have a video up fairly soon about will there be another video game crash? You can also find me on Twitter at thecheapferret and I'm a freelance games writer, so you can find me on sites like Silicone era, where by the time this goes out, I should have a review of Neptunia Gamemaker up. So there we go. [01:49:07] Speaker A: Sam, how about yourself? [01:49:09] Speaker C: You can find me on Twitter. Sorry, x at dragonsam 89. [01:49:14] Speaker B: Twitter. [01:49:15] Speaker C: Still Twitter. [01:49:16] Speaker A: Twitter to us. Got to have it. [01:49:19] Speaker C: And on Instagram sdedwards 89. And you can also find me on the Geeky Brain website every Thursday with the film roundup. [01:49:29] Speaker A: Awesome. Keith, how about yourself? [01:49:32] Speaker D: You can find me on Twixter, Instagram, bluesky. Look for hardlock hotels. Generally going to be me for some reason. The Twitter one still needs the underscore. I might sort that out and do that at some point. Particularly come and find me on Bluesky actually, because I need more reason to go on that rather than on Twixta. But yeah, and then every Wednesday on the geeky Brummie website and the Twitter and our YouTube channel with the shorts. You can always see me shorts because they're the only shorts you're going to see me in this summer. And you can find that on the geeky rummy website. We've only got the comics of the week that week. [01:50:11] Speaker A: Awesome. And don't forget as well Lee's game roundup on the website on Friday. You can find us all too much stuff. You cannot find me on social media. I am an but you can find us all at geekybrummy on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram. We will get blue sky going at some point this soon. YouTube of course if you're watching this, or your podcasting streaming service of choice if you're listening to us. We also do multiple shorts throughout the week and I said plenty of content on the website. Lots more to come soon. But thank you for joining us and we'll see you next time around. Don't forget to like subscribe share Bye bye. [01:50:53] Speaker D: The Geeky Brummy podcast was presented by Ryan Parrish with Lee Price, Sam Edwards and Keith Bloomfield. It's produced by Viv Parrish and is a geeky Brummie production.