 This is Patriot Prime here once again with another episode of The Sit Rep. Unfortunately, I'm not afraid to know Ghost because I'm here with Phil of Ghost Prime on YouTube. Phil, how are you doing tonight? I'm doing pretty great. That's a pretty nice day today and I'm happy to be here. Excellent. Well, I know we've been kind of planning this for a while, so I'm very glad you're able to stop by and chat with me. First off, tell us a little bit about yourself. Well, I work in the tech industry. Right now I do VR headsets. I do QA, customer support, social media. Before that, it's been many years in the video game industry. So I love video games. I love toys. It's pretty cool actually. When I went to my last job, I had 24 transformers on my desk. Wow. So which system you run now? Well, currently I'm playing on the Xbox One X. Devil May Cry 5 I just got recently and I just went through Red Dead Redemption 2. This is a great game, but it's super long. It took me like three months to complete. I'm currently playing Far Cry 5 on the PS4, waiting on Mortal Kombat 11 to drop. Pretty much the month of May. I will not be on YouTube because I'm going to be playing that game. I'm not very good at fighting games. I love them. I've been a Mortal Kombat fan since I saw number one. I'm old, the first one in the arcade. Oh yeah, and I played it in the arcade as well. The combo system is hard for me to get. I played a bit of Street Fighter and it's a little different than Street Fighter. If you have Street Fighter on your mind, for some reason I can't do it. Soul Calibur is sort of my game. I bought a Dreamcast just for Soul Calibur when I got back from basic training. The game is awesome. Alright, we'll go ahead and get into the Sitrep. As everyone knows, and for some of you new viewers, the Sitrep is a series of ten questions. I asked my guests five questions regarding Transformers and five questions regarding my guest as a YouTuber. So, Phil, if you're ready to rock and roll, we'll do this thing. Oh yeah. Alright, sir. Number one, what's the appeal of Transformers for you? Well, I've always liked robots. Ever since I can remember I've liked robots. The Sentient Robot is really, really cool idea. It's kind of a scary idea if you get too much into it, but it's a cool idea. And as a kid, it's something that I gravitated towards. Looking back on it, I had a lot of different types of robots. But the Transformers, I liked because of the aesthetics. I liked because they turned into real world vehicles. I thought it was very cool. My first Transformer was actually Megatron. Nice. That's a good one. Yeah, it really is. He's one of those ones. I love the figure now for what he is. But when I first got him, I was so disappointed how he didn't look anything like the cartoon. Yeah, I know why now because it was actually based on an unreleased micro change figure. But I still liked it. I really liked the way it looked. I liked the head sculpt on it, even though it didn't look like the cartoon. He was so versatile. I remember playing with mine probably as much as a gun as a Transformer. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Actually, interestingly enough, I have a 16 special issue also. And my wife, one year for Halloween, was a gangster. She used the gun as a prop for her costumes. Nice. Alright, sir. Number two, aside from G1, which is always the number one answer, what's your favorite Transformers fiction? It's a toss up for me, actually. I really liked Beast Wars and actually really ended up liking Animated. Both Beast Wars and Animated came into their own later in the seasons. I really wish Animated went into another season. Beast Wars was sort of a whole complete story. So it's kind of a toss up. I like the themes that went on between both of them, especially Beast Wars, where you dealt with changing sides and love between robots, which was interesting. And just a lot of darker themes as you get into it into that Megatron and Beast Wars was insane and awesome. Yeah, I want that new masterpiece so bad, but I got a T1 coming up, buddy. Yeah, I kind of priced out of those new masterpiece figures. The new masterpiece's figures are so expensive. Like before, it's like I didn't get a lot of third party because Hasbro and Masterpiece was cheaper. But like the new Prime, I have a whole shelf devoted to Prime, and I can't afford that new Prime. I hate to admit it. Well, I have admitted it, but there's a lot of times anymore. I just wait on that KO company to make one for 90 bucks like I did with the Masterpiece Megatron. See, unfortunately, I did get the Masterpiece Megatron, the new one. But yeah, I'm going to have to wait on the KO company. It's something I just generally don't do, but it's one of the... If they have it cheaper, I'm going to have to go for it this time. Money talks, man. Money talks. Oh, yeah. All right, question number three. Do you have a favorite figure or grail? This is the one toy you will not get rid of. If you have to sell your whole collection, this one's not going anywhere. I do. My very, very first Transformer, as mentioned earlier, was Megatron. I actually have it here. He's missing arms, and it's a little bit floppy. But I got this in 1984. I remember I was... See, 84, I was with seven. So my grandmother bought this for me, and the box was like this big. And I'm like, oh, this is Transformers. This is awesome. I was like, why would you want a gun? I'm like, it's awesome. It's a gun and a robot. And so she bought it for me, and it's been through a lot. My grandpa fixed this piece. The reason this is so loose is because there's actually a screw in here. The trigger won't move anymore. He screwed it in there because I broke it. I couldn't transform this thing for the life of me when I was young. I eventually, of course, figured it out. They may be junk to somebody, but I love this thing. I just love it. Right there proves a point when a lot of people give us that questioning look when we tell them what we collect. A lot of it does have that sentimental value to it. It's the same as if somebody catches that baseball field. I'm not a big sports guy. It's the same thing. I can remember so fondly of that memory. My grandparents had a big part in my upbringing. It's definitely nostalgia. I can't get rid of that ever. Excellent. I love it. Question number four. What figure is your white whale, your most wanted toy? Sometimes it changes. I think right now, actually for the last few years, shining ultramagnus, the yellow one. Have you seen that? It's a reissue. Is he a G1 yellow ultramagnus? He's exclusive. I believe that they made 800 of them. That thing goes for ridiculous amounts of money right now. If I could find one that I could afford, I'm going to jump on it. I don't know why. Just something about a really off-colored ultramagnus has a clear yellow trailer and the cab is yellow. Not clear yellow, but it's yellow. I just wrote down what time we're talking because I like to put a picture of those odd toys up during the video so that way people can see what we're talking about. It's super rare. Actually before that one was Ghost Starscream, the e-hobby one. I know that one. I finally got that one. That one's awesome. Nice. Yeah, the shining ultramagnus, man. I don't know what it is. I like it so much. I'm ready to research that one because I'm at a loss with that one there. All right, number five and your last Transformers question. What's your favorite Transformers character? Any fiction, any media, I won't judge. You know, I had no standard, but Optimus Prime. Probably the same reasons everybody else. His characterization is amazing. He's super powerful, but he could bring it when he needs to bring it, but he doesn't always just go. He's not bloodthirsty. So you're not talking about the movie version, Brad? Right, not talking about the movie version. But yeah, I also love Optimus Prime. And as I said, I got Megatron first. I actually never had the original Generation 1 Optimus Prime. I ended up getting Power Master, but never the original. I could never find it in stores. So it just became this hunt for Optimus Prime. That's great. How many of them do you have now? I haven't counted. I have a lot. I try to get at least one from every fiction, if not more. I have a lot more G1. As far as G1, I have the G2 version of the G1. I have the newest Walmart reissue. I have Pepsi Prime, the Bloated Fist Prime. Those are for G1. If you don't count Power Master. He's G1. I count him. Well, I mean, as far as the 84 side. Gotcha, gotcha. All right. Well, that wraps up our Transformers questions. Now it's time to get to know you as a YouTuber. So question number six. What possessed you, a grown ass man, to do toy reviews on YouTube? I love talking about Transformers. So I used to work at this company, like I mentioned earlier, I think, before. I used to work at this company that was allowed that sort of thing. And there's other collectors there. And I love talking about them. I used to bring Transformers in. My whole collection has been in my workplace at one point or another. I bring in a man and out showing people talking about them. And now I don't have that. And so I started a YouTube channel. So where I could actually talk about Transformers. Where I live now, there's not a lot of people around here that collect Transformers. I don't know if they collect very many other things either. I'm still trying to find people. I've been here for about two years. But it's, it's, I love talking about Transformers. So I just figured, might as well put it in front of a camera. I'll see you also. I would like to interact with me. You know, and all my guests are the same way. Cause I'm in the same boat. I live in a small town. I'm really into this. And there's just nobody else. There's another buddy of mine who collects toys, but it's not like a specific line. But he still enjoys collecting what he does. Yeah. I got my coworker collects Star Wars. He's got a pretty big collection of Star Wars. That's actually what this room used to be. It was half and half. But then the Transformers just took over. I mean, you can only get so many Darth Vader's, you know. Yeah, sir. I used to collect Star Wars too, but Transformers take it over. All right. Question number seven, what keeps inspiring you to get in front of the camera? New and old toys or maybe I'll pick up a figure and like, oh, this is just a cool figure. Same thing with like talking about them. I try to, I try to do reviews as much as possible. I have a 10 minute old daughter. So now just coming up to this point, I actually have time to do a bit more. Now that she's 10 months old, I don't have to run every few minutes to, you know, to check on my wife and help her. It's a little easier. So yeah, it's just whatever figure I like, you know. So I might pick up one and I just want to do this. I think that's what I'm actually going to start doing is do more G1s. Because lately I've been super, super into G1s. I still have a complete collection of G1s. I'm missing a lot. I'm missing a lot of Autobots. I actually completed every American release Decepticon. I think I finished that last spring or late summer. It was a MicroMasters set. I got to finish them off. So that was a proud accomplishment for me. Nice. Yeah. I'm pretty far behind. I have a lot of the earlier ones. A lot of Decepticons I'm actually missing. I'm missing like a Cyclones. I don't have Bruticus. I don't have the Seacons. There's a lot that I'm missing. I don't have all the Decepticons. I'm missing Ransack. So it's just, every time I see a good deal, I pick one up. I'm looking for a good deal in Cyclones right now. So he's kind of, I love Cyclones. So I need to have one. I actually, with my Cyclones, it was funny. I had bought a Shark Decon, a Null. And he was missing one arm and one of the little spikes under his chin. So I'm just looking for parts. And one day I'm going in. This is when I worked real early in the morning. I hop on eBay and there's a guy selling a complete Cyclones and a complete Null in a lot. And it was right at that moment $30. So I bid $40. By the time I got to work, I had won a complete G1 Cyclones and Null for 37 bucks. Oh, wow. I have a couple of good luck, like my Jet Fire. I got it for $60. But it's the, I can never pronounce it. It's the Macross. It has the Macross logo on the back wing. It's complete mint. I don't have the box, but it has a styrofoam. All the pieces, it's in soup. Like the condition of it is unbelievable. Like it's never was played with. I got it for $60. And it had this, so just as a bonus, I guess, there was this bag full of weapons. Not Jet Fire weapons, but a whole bunch of like, all of Gremlach's missiles still in the sprue. All of the sound waves still in the sprue. All the parts to Inferno. We're staying with the missiles. Just tons and tons of parts that I'm still actually using for one of my figures. I go, well, it doesn't matter if it doesn't have the missiles. I got the missiles already. It just was included. It wasn't even pictured in the lot. They just showed up in the package. And it's the parts. That was pretty cool. Sorry, you're breaking up a little bit. I know. Wife's probably on Hulu right now. Let's see. There we go. All right. So where are we at? Okay. Question number eight. There are thousands of toy reviewers on YouTube. What makes you different from the rest? You know, I don't know actually. I didn't really stop to think about what I could do differently. I just try to be myself. Also don't monetize. I don't think I have enough subscribers to monetize. But it's one thing. I usually do all my reviews on TV. So I'll stream them on my TV. And in the middle of it, there's a 15 second commercial that I can't skip. Like I have ad blocker on my computer. But TV, you know, you don't have that. It's annoying. So I'm like, ah, it's always in the worst part too. It's the worst cut ever. So I decided like, just the middle ad, you can actually put where you want to. Like I have the option sometimes where I can put one. So I'll go through and I try to find at least a break. You know, a lot of these, I watched one today on Mortal Kombat. And this guy had an ad every five minutes in a 30 minute video. I'm like, okay, this is a little ridiculous. Yeah, it gets pretty excessive sometimes. So you don't make bank doing this. I mean, I've been, luckily I got monetized at the end of January and I've only made 30 bucks. So it's not, it's not this huge money making thing that people do. I mean, I like the perks where I now have a community page so I can throw pictures out to kind of bring viewers in, which is pretty neat. Right, right. Yeah. So some of the bigger, you know, reviewers, you get a bunch of, a bunch of ads and all their videos. Got it now. All question number nine. What's your thoughts on the Transformers social community, i.e. YouTube, Facebook, and do you have any special shout outs? Besides you, man, like the community's been pretty good. I've only ever had one negative experience, but it ended up being a positive experience because it brought a bunch of us together. There was a, this was on TFW. There was a trade and the guy tried to trade with a whole bunch of different people. Everybody sent him a bunch of stuff. He never sent what he said he was going to send. And we all got pretty upset. We all banded together and we ended up at, this was 2011. We ended up at a BotCon together. And, you know, I still talk to some of these guys. They just, we all came together and was like, we're trying to find this person, trying to figure out where our stuff is. I was able to find his stuff through, they sold, they got sold again. I was like, hey, this is mine. There was a negative thing, but it became a positive thing because it really, there's when, when is, you know, when is necessary the community has banded together. There's a lot of great people in this community. A lot of really, really great people in this community. And it keeps me going. There's very few, I mean, you see some negativity, but overall it's a very, very positive community. Oh, it's nothing like some of the other fans of Marvel Wars is ridiculous anymore. Well, the same with Marvel now. The whole Captain Marvel thing was Jesus. Right. Yeah. Yeah, I didn't understand how that sucks. Like, yeah, totally. I try my best to stay out of it. Unfortunately, the name of my channel and the fact with my American flag waving, I'm a prime target for a lot of these. Yeah, I don't know the right word to say it, but you know what I'm talking about. The more boisterous people. Yes. Like today, for example, on, you've seen my toy hacks reviews, right? Oh, yeah. So I did that toy hacks review of the Siege Optimus Prime. Yeah. Somebody gets on there and goes, well, you realize Megatron would want to build the wall, not prime. And of course, nowhere in my review do I mention the wall or politics, but that's just the stuff I deal with just because of my name. Yeah. I understand that. I mean, I've actually moderated communities before. I ran a couple of websites for wargaming. Not ran, but I moderated. Right. Well, I tell you, it's one thing I'll give props to some of these Facebook group. Well, most of the ones I belong to, they're moderated very, very well and they keep it down to a minimum. You really don't run into much. Yeah. Yeah. It's sometimes you get a couple of war infections. Moderation's kind of a, it's a hard job actually. I think it's a couple of people that are like, well, I believe this. They're like, I believe this. They don't like each other. It's like, we all love the same thing. Let's just get along, you know. You have to take a moment and pause and say, we are all in our forties arguing about toys. Right. Right. You know. What would Optimus Prime say? Yeah. Give me your face. All right, brother. Last question. Do you have any channel goals for yourself and where can our viewers find you? This is your turn to plug yourself. Yeah. So, um, part of, like I said, I'm really into G1 lately and I've seen a lot of KO's out there. A lot of people don't know what the differences between a KO and a, there's a lot of information out there, but it's not God. It's gathered a couple of different questions. It's not God. It's gathered a couple of different places. It's not really a lot of videos. The unfortunate thing is I'm not going to buy it, so I'm going to have to see if I could get the information out there without getting doubles of, but like I have my Optimus Prime one, the KO review. I'm going to try to keep on bringing good information out there, especially when it comes to vintage toys. Because there's a lot of things that are getting buried lately. A lot of newcomers to the scene that may not know, may spend, you know, $200 on this box transformer that ends up being a knockoff and it happens, especially with Optimus Prime time and time again. So, I want, my goal is to get some good information out. Um, and of course you always find me on YouTube, you know, those Prime reviews. And as usual, I will have a link to your channel in the description of this video. And at the very end during my outro with Patriot Prime and the American Flag Waving, I'll have a link to one of your videos and your channel as well. Awesome. We'll try to bring you some people. That sounds awesome. Good, good. Well, once again, I thank you for taking your time out to talk to me. I always enjoy doing this and meeting some people face to face that I always see online. So, thanks for spending your time with me tonight. My pleasure. Excellent. Excellent. And I want to thank you guys for stopping by and checking out the video. If you like what you see, don't forget to like, don't forget to subscribe, and keep your eye out for more sit reps. I try to put them out at least twice a week now on Mondays and Fridays. This is Patriot Prime, signing out. Ho-wah! Patriot Transformers, Modern Era Transformers and Toy Hacks Repro Label 6. Once again, this is Patriot Prime. Ho-wah!