80scartoons

The Immobilizer – Four Million Years Later, episode 22

Blog, Podcasts / August 7, 2023 / 80s cartoons, 80scartoons, Four Million Years Later, transformers, transformersg1

See: a Wheeljack invention that WORKS! Witness: Ironhide feel SAD!! Behold: a new flesh creature that can handle business Rosie-The-Riveter style!!! All this and Bumblebee visits the arcade!!!! (Sorry for Jerzy’s randomly-ramping-up-loudly audio in this one. I’ve taken away all his Bumblebee toys to punish him.)

Watch the episode before listening to our commentary:

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Traitor – Four Million Years Later, episode 21

Blog, Podcasts / July 31, 2023 / 80s cartoons, 80scartoons, Four Million Years Later, transformers, transformersg1

Uh oh! Has somebody SWITCHED SIDES?? Behold: Cliffjumper cliffjump to conclusions!! Listen to young Jerzy discover the meaning of two different phrases!! And Hoover shows he appreciates easily-contented characters with no drive!!

Watch the episode before listening to our commentary:

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Attack of the Autobots – Four Million Years Later, episode 20

Blog, Podcasts / July 24, 2023 / 80s cartoons, 80scartoons, Four Million Years Later, transformers, transformersg1

In this episode, the Autobots attack… some jets on an airstrip?? Megatron reveals the weirdest aerosol spray ever!! Starscream has absolutely nothing to say… about ANYTHING! All this and a human smashes a window in order to jump out of it, hides in a dumpster, and has said dumpster go flying into a brick wall with her in it, but emerges unscathed! And yet I stub my toe and am bedridden for 3 months???

Watch the episode before listening to our commentary:

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Autobot Spike – Four Million Years Later, episode 17

Blog, Podcasts / July 3, 2023 / 80s cartoons, 80scartoons, Four Million Years Later, transformers, transformersg1

We’re back to talking about episodes, and here is AUTOBOT SPIKE to kick off season two. In this episode we hear young Jerzy’s shocked reaction to the new SEASON TWO OPENING! Jerzy upgrades the script from an intermediate level to young adult level!! Hoover lovingly talks about Reflector!!! Jerzy actually THROWS SHADE at Optimus Prime!!!! And we mispronounce Donald F Glut’s last name YET AGAIN (sorry Chris)!!!!! All this and the creepiest quote in the series (so far, at least). Stick a colander on your head and transfer your mind into your podcast player!!

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Watch the episode before listening to our commentary:

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Season 1 Wrap-Up Pt 2 – Four Million Years Later, Episode 16.2

Blog, Four Million Years Later, Podcasts / June 27, 2023 / 80scartoons, transformers, transformersg1

Part two of our Season One Wrap-up includes a lot of praise from listeners! Comments come in from Chris Giarrusso (yes, THAT Chris Giarrusso, of MINI MARVELS and G-MAN), David Cabal (of the RETROCABAL podcast), Miguel @LogosMinor/@BoricuaConvoy, Rick Heinichen (of the podcast JEFF AND RICK PRESENT UNPACKING THE POWER OF POWER PACK), Guy Jessop-Braithwaite, Ashley Knapp, and Rob Stenzinger (of the LEAN INTO ART podcast). The sites we recommend in this episode:

The sites we recommend in this episode:

Thanks to everyone who’s ever left a comment, posted a review, sent an email, or recommended the podcast. You make this all worth it.

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A Primary Influence on Doctor Baer

Blog / June 13, 2023 / 80scartoons, cartoons, doctorbaer

The Palace of Doom! The Roof of the World! The Pit of Chaos! The Amusement Part of Terror! These are the wild locations in my favorite 100-odd minutes of animation. The Revenge of Cobra mini-series is a huge influence on my upcoming book, The Inscrutable Doctor Baer and the Case of the Two-Faced Statue. The world-spanning MacGuffin chase, the alliance-building of the heroes, and the internal dysfunction of the villains is just perfect in this mini-series.

I’ll probably be creatively chasing the feeling this cartoon gave me for the rest of my life.

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Double-Edged Sword

Blog / May 17, 2023 / 80scartoons, heman, mastersoftheuniverse, youtube

One of my favorite episodes. The ideas in this series are a big influence on my work, but this episode in particular. Young Jerzy thought violence was scary, but the adults in his life seemed to think it was a normal, acceptable thing. Thank goodness for Lou Schiemer and the writers of this series, who presented kid Jerzy with alternatives.

Exploring exciting action while avoiding glamorizing violence was an important idea in the making of my book, The Inscrutable Doctor Baer and the Case of the Two-Faced Statue. I’m hopeful that kids who need it will find support in my book the way I did in this show.

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GoBots

Blog / May 3, 2023 / 80s cartoons, 80scartoons, cartoons, inking, transformers

As Hoover and I explored repeatedly on the Four Million Years Later podcast, GoBots was a brand I hated as a boy, but grew to love as I got older.

I learned to appreciate another take on the transforming robot scifi genre (as if there should only be one!); the fact that they had female-presenting robots fully integrated into the series (unlike TF that didn’t have a female main character until the third season), the human characters were much more diverse, there’s very little gunplay, and the voice acting is terrific!

Oh, and the theme song isn’t bad:

Here are a few GoBots drawings I did while teaching myself to ink with a brush.

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From Instagram

Blog / June 24, 2021 / 80scartoons, eternia, heman, Instagram, mastersoftheuniverse, merman, motu

Mer-Man aping the Gill Man painting fr this week’s live stream. Join me again on Tuesday at 1:30pm ET/12:30 CT/10:30 PT, “jerzydrozd” on YT and Twitch.