 What's going on guys Patriot Prime here once again with another episode of the sit rep and I am here with Joel from the channel Larkin's layer Joel how are you doing tonight? Yeah doing very well thanks for having me on. I love that we're so far away there's that odd pause when I ask somebody how they're doing it just gets really awkward and quiet on my end. Yeah yeah it's there's a little lag a bit. That's what makes it interesting. Wait a way how the sit rep works is I'm going to ask you 10 questions. I have five questions regarding you as a Transformers collector and five questions regarding you as a YouTuber. So if you are ready to rock and roll we'll do this thing. Yep ready. All right. Well question number one is what is the appeal of Transformers for you? Well basically robots growing up in Hawaii we were always exposed to these Japanese robot shows like Super Sentai and then next thing you know you have Transformers where you have robots that transforms into stuff. So that part just appealed to me as a kid and you know just having two things in one right you know and two toys in one basically. Nice. For me it was always the stories. I mean a toy is a toy but without that story to carry carry the figures that's what kind of got me which leads into question number two. Aside from generation one which is always the right answer. What is your favorite Transformers fiction. So I know a lot of guys say Beast Wars but you know I do like Beast Wars but more recently it would have to be animated. At first I didn't really care for animated because the designs were so different. But as the story progressed I actually really liked a lot of the G1 throwbacks. The biggest thing that I was a bit disappointed though with animated is that we never got an Omega Supreme toy and I really wish we did. But yeah animated just had so much throwbacks to G1 and I really liked that one a lot. I was the same way I just I didn't give this show a chance at first because that animation style I hate it. I just despise that super cartoony style but I think it was near when it near the end of the season where Megatron actually came to play. That's when it got the show got a little darker cause I recently watched it and I thought was pretty dark for a kids show when Ratchet gets his hand frozen. Blitzwing just snaps it off and carries out the key so I was like okay this is changing up a little bit. No definitely yeah it kind of got darker toward the end but yeah it actually surprised me too as well. It's kind of like I talk about how all these shows start off so kiddified but then they realize near the end hey the adults are watching this not the kids. The kids are eating cereal and picking boogers in the back they don't care about this stuff. It kind of reminds me of how Beast Wars was too in the beginning. It started kind of was like that and then when it had those G1 hooks into it it was like hey this is actually getting really serious here and the storytelling too. Season two and three was so dark I loved it. Yeah those were the best. Alright sir question number three do you have a favorite figure or holy grail one toy you will never let go of. I see you've got a nice collection behind your head kind of like I do. Yeah this one will be this might be a surprise. My favorite figure I've actually brought it with me is this and you may it's not for a lot of reasons. Most people think it's mainly because my daughter gave this to me on my 34th birthday. She actually went with her mom out to Walmart and went to wanted to get a transformer because she knew daddy collected transformers. So this is a 2010 Hellstorm from the Transformers movie franchise. That's the reveal the shield series if I'm not mistaken. Yeah it still has to have that one. This has that Bay verse look still but it's actually pretty decent and mainly because you know this my eldest daughter gave it to me. I don't think that I would never sell this you know if I needed money you know all the stuff behind me I would sell but this I would never sell. That's awesome. Love it. Love it. All right leading on to question number four. What figure is your white whale. What is your most wanted transformer figure. Okay so I it has recently changed last when I first got these questions and I was looking through them. It was actually G1 Jetfire because that was the very first transformer I got as a kid. In fact the story behind that was I think it was the movie was called a Christmas story. I believe and where the kid has the present and he uses a hairdryer to find out what he got and uses it to open to loosens the tape from the present. And then so he can remove the wrapping and take it out and find out. I actually did that with that G1 Jetfire took it to the bathroom when nobody was around and then I found out it was G1 Jetfire. I took it out. I don't even think I told my parents this. I took it out, opened it, played with it, put it back in, sealed it and then opened it for my birthday. That is what I really really wanted. But just recently I won one on an eBay auction. So I'm just waiting for it to come in. Is it getting complete? It is complete. It does need some little restoration but you know get some repo toy hacks labels and stuff like that. Yeah, I know a guy who really likes to go over those. Yeah, definitely. But because of that change it is actually the G1 Megatron. I want to get a G1 Megatron and currently bidding on one. Nice. See if that happens. Especially with the things that you've been, you know those picks you've been posting about Megatron. I'm making me want that even more, man. It has. Do I need to go get him off the shelf for you like I did with Tony the other night? Well, I'm already bidding on him so you've already pushed me over. Funny story about my Megatron. I'm not sure if I mentioned this in any of my videos but I got mine at a yard sale or a flea market. I'm shopping around and there is an Optimus Prime and a Megatron. Optimus is in truck mode and Megatron is just a pistol. It doesn't have anything else just the pistol. So I'm looking at the guy and I said how much for that red truck and gun? Now this is before Transformers was all super popular. Yeah. And he said I don't know five bucks for both of them. So I was like here's your five dollars pick Megatron up and immediately transform. The guy was like I didn't know it did that. I'm going to have to ask for more and I'm like I said money has changed hands my friend. Oh yeah. The deal is a deal. Yeah. He wasn't as good a shape as this one. I think I sold him off maybe in 2005 and then around 2007 when I really got G1 and again and lucked out on eBay and got that really nice one that's showing off. That's a really nice one all those tight joints and everything. He's squeaky. So squeaky. Yeah. The one I'm bidding on is the on core reissue. The one in the book. No. The first one before they did the book ones. Yeah. So I'm hoping to win that. I love. I hope they continue the on core line. I know they stopped with Fortress Maximus and my holy grail is getting at G1 over lords. I'm always hoping they redo that guy. I've seen one at a convention behind glass. I've never touched it. I want this guy so bad. I've seen some. I know they're KOs on on on eBay but like they're full in boxing everything different. Yeah. I actually picked one. It's a yellow cliff jumper that was I when I when I got jet fire as a kid. My parents also got me a yellow cliff jumper and a Huffer. So I'm trying to complete those two that that whole trifecta of figures. That's the two mini bots I needed as a kid. I had the red bumblebee and the yellow cliff jumper. Oh nice. And of course the kid collection disappears when you go into high school. And now I've got a red cliff jumper and the original yellow bumblebee. I'd like to have those other two just because. Yeah. Nice. All right. Question number five and our final transformers question. What's your favorite transformer character any fiction any media. So I mean I know a lot of people say this but you know for me it's Optimus Prime. I mean as a kid growing up in the 80s Optimus Prime he was this noble character. It's the characters you don't have a lot of nowadays. He doesn't talk a lot. But he whatever he says whenever he does he says something it means stuff. And he's he's compassionate has all the act knows how to fight knows how to defend others. And man you know that scene in the 86 movie where he just even till this day when you see him coming in ramming those Decepticons transforming just taking care of business not saying a word still gives me goosebumps when I watch that. And yeah they do not make those like that anymore and they probably never will again. So that's true. That's a great flick. All right. Where are we at. Well that's it. That's all the transformers question now it's time to get to know you as a YouTuber. So question number six is what possessed you a grown ass man to do toy reviews. You know it's kind of like an accident in a way. So I started doing transformer toy reviews with siege ultra Magnus and shockwave who I happened to find in my local Walmart really early which never happens in Hawaii. So I posted a review on them just for fun and it was really junk in fact I got all these comments like wow is that it and I'm like and to me I was like what's the heck because there's like tons of reviewers out there right. And then I realized that my video review was like the first of that of those two figures and that's why there was get like I was like a thousand views why is there a thousand views on this thing. And I'm like you know what there's so many complaints I'm going to redo it. So I redid it got a white background did everything redid it and I found out that I actually liked it. It was like a lot of fun and if anything I'm it's just a lot of fun. It's it's it's gotten me to enjoy transformers not just buying them taking them out of the package putting them up but actually being a part of that community. So I don't know that's that's what kind of pushed me over to it. And isn't it so cool when your first review is something nobody else has done. It is. So I had two I guess three instances of that was the the ultramagnus and siege ultramagnus and siege shockwave and the Walmart Optimus Prime that reissue. And both of them surprised me because in Hawaii we never get anything first because I was at law that where everything has to go to the mainland first before it comes to Hawaii. It's this shipping or law. Well it doesn't get funneled through West Virginia I can tell you that. But yeah so yeah it's a lot it's really cool but then again you're like well yeah I should really do this right if I'm if I'm first. But yeah that's basically why I don't know. That's that's where I looked out because when I was deciding to do this I was really researching something that nobody done. And you know I just told you about my overlord obsession and Titan's Return had that overlord come out which I had on pre-order. And there was a site from Japan. I forget the name of it I found on eBay but they had this overlord upgrade set. So I went ahead and ordered that. And while I'm toying with the idea of doing a YouTube channel I'm looking on YouTube for anybody who had done a review of this set so I kind of know what I'm buying. Couldn't find it at all. Up until the day I actually decided to film that upgrade set I was the only one that dipped. I mean and just over a year I've got 5,000 views on that. I actually like that. I like your comment like that mint and box comment that you made on that review. And then how you're like showing this is the box. That's what I was trying to find myself. I was like do I want to do comedy? Do I want to be serious? I was kind of almost mimicking other reviewers. But now as of I guess pretty much as of January I've found my niche and how I like to start, do the review and then end my videos. And I think it's working pretty well. If some comedy comes in like my Naga Hat video. If it pops in here I'm going to do it. Hey if it comes actually just let it happen. Exactly. Nice. Alright now question number seven is what keeps inspiring you to get in front of your camera? You know lately it's just been the community. Like you see the comments people you know when they appreciate stuff. I mean there are negative comments and stuff. But it's like 90% positive. So it's encouraging when you see people like saying yeah you know thanks or when they enjoy what you put out. And for me it's an encouragement and kind of keeps me going. And you develop your own little following too. Like I know when I do a video I'm going to have the same 10 or 12 folks they're right there to watch and comment. Yeah that's true. Very true man. God forbid you screw up something on a video. I'm not elected to show that laser beat could sit on sound waves arms with the legs down. And I must have got messages from 12 different people regarding that. I put a little blurb on the video. I know I screwed up quit messaging me about it. You know the weirdest message I had was on the Optimus Prime G1 Optimus Prime review. Like they told me I got a message saying you didn't say that the wheels are different from the original. And I'm like I don't have the original version or that something is a bit bigger. I'm like am I really going to measure that? Am I going to measure all those parts and compare it to the original? Even if I had the original I don't think I'd do that. Do you follow Bert the Stormtrooper? Do you watch his videos? Yeah I've seen his stuff. He did a review on the 50th anniversary. I'm thinking the 50 dollars. The anniversary prime from Walmart and he was talking about it. And somebody fussed at him about the comparisons. And he told him he says I don't have an original generation one Optimus Prime. And of course they start lightening into him. He's like I don't feel like I need to because I have the 20th anniversary. I have the 25th anniversary. Why do I need the same thing? And it was something else because he and I messaged each other a lot. And this guy was just slamming him for that. Yeah you know YouTube has that block feature. Block and delete baby. Yep yep. They're going to sell my subs. Nice. Question number eight sir. There are thousands of toy reviewers on YouTube. What makes you different than the rest? And I can kind of answer some of that right now because I'm digging your 3D printing. Is that your machine? Yeah that is my machine. And you know I started seeing all these accessories that people are putting up and I mean man there's a lot of stuff I can do. So I started firing up the 3D printer. I just printed out this thing. Side Swipes gun. It's a G1 version for Siege. Oh I love it. Along with what's been missing. The missile. I mean like I don't know why Hasbro didn't include that missile but yeah. I thought they gave me these dumb little pink light bulb looking things. I plugged it in and I was like no. So yeah this one was actually for Siege Hound which is also missing that. So I figured just print them out, show people. 3D printing is actually also getting a lot more affordable. Like the printer I'm using is like only $150. Really? Last time I looked they were like $500. Yeah this is the one I'm using is just a model price mini delta. It's only $150 and you get really good results. Like this is another gun I printed out. It's just a generic, I don't know, generic gun. Now the plastic smooth or rough? It is rough so it's similar to the plastic that your, the Overlord upgrade. But I mean you can smooth it out but for my purposes I mean if you look at the detail it's still pretty smooth. Oh yeah and plus it's going to be on your shelf. It's not like you're going to be feeling it anyway. So what I'm hoping, I might end up getting a bigger 3D printer because what I'm hoping with Siege Omega coming out, that track is way too small. It's stupid small. Stupid small right? If I can print out these pieces and make it really big I want to print out the whole track for Omega. That's the goal. We'll see if that happens. I am so torn right now because we got Jetfire in July, Omega in July. So many cool figures out. Yet I have TF Con in October. Oh my goodness. I'm like do I need to, I think I'm just going to reel myself in for this. You know, Black Friday these. Oh my goodness. That's going to be so hard to walk my stuff on the shelf and go no. I mean the Siege line man to me it's killing it man. It's like what I wanted since forever. I mean I can't imagine, it's just killing it. I like it. I love the Jetfire Omega coming out. I'm happy with it. It's a good time to be a Transformers fan. I haven't been disappointed with any of the figures that I bought personally other than the many figures. I really didn't like the race car patrol and Ravage. Yeah, Ravage. He's okay but they could have done more. And I haven't opened these guys yet. I still want to do a review on the rescue patrol. Oh yeah, the black car. My goodness the legs keep popping out for mine. I really like the model of what he's called now red heat. Yeah. He went from red hot which was a candy to red heat which is Arnold Schwarzenegger movie. Hey, do you have the Generations Hound that came with the Ravage? I used to. He was one of the Generations figures I sacrificed when I really started focusing on G1. I just wish they used that model but made it smaller for Siege. It comes out. I mean it was a better looking cat other than I didn't like its head sculpt. The head sculpt on this Ravage didn't bat at all. I didn't notice until I was doing a review when I focused in his little fangs. I haven't seen those on anybody else's review and I was like holy shit there's fangs on this guy. I didn't even notice until your review that you could plug those things on behind laser beak. Yeah. So it's really cool. That review took me two days because normally I'll open a figure. I'll film the intro. Then I'll play around with the figure for a couple days then do the outro. But this time I got them right out of the package and I was just like what do I do with them? And I screwed up so many times. I think that's where I was talking about I couldn't get Ravage transformed. So I was like okay I need to spend a couple days on this guy. I forgot I gotta tell you this though. Back to that question because I was thinking about it. What makes me different from the rest? Yeah we got side tracks. I just had to throw this out there because speaking of all the trolls. This is what most of my troll comments are about this. They want me to shave my arms. Nobody said that to me but when I'm doing my reviews I look like Chewbacca hands as a hold of the toys. So that's what makes me different I guess. But then again you have it. So I don't know why do people tell me to shave my arms but they don't tell you. I guess since I talk like a hillbilly they expect it. You're supposed to be a smooth islander. Nice. It just comes to me. Alright where are we now? Question number nine we're rolling right along. You kind of hit this a little bit but what's your thoughts on the Transformers social community? I.e. YouTube, Facebook and do you have any shout outs? For the community I really like it. I would say I'm pretty new to the review community but so far the majority put aside all those negative comments because they're really a tiny minority but the majority of folks very helpful, very encouraging and then even I found that Transformers and such Facebook group because of your channel and they're really cool. I have no complaints of it. I guess it all depends on where you go and who you hang with. So far I mean it's been great especially the Facebook group and just the folks who've been commenting on the channel lately. As far as shout outs, I never really thought too much about it to be honest. I mean your channel is pretty awesome. I like checking it out. One of my subscribers is a kid. I forget his channel. Bumblebee something. Bumblebee, I would say his G1 is basically the movies. I mean the movie, the Bayverse and stuff. You know this guy is watching this right now. Come on man, say my name. Yeah, I got it right here. It is Bumblebee217. And I know there's a young kid in all and he has like a hundred something subscribers but I appreciate whenever I see a drive in a kid to do something and give it his all and stuff. I appreciate it a lot because I don't see a lot of that nowadays and he really gives it his all in his channel and you know says what he wants about the figures he reviews, shows his customs. I don't know. I appreciate that because I think I'm sounding like an old man now. I don't see a lot of that in youth, at least where I'm from. So I guess I'll give a shout out to him. Excellent. I know he's thrilled to death. I'll have to check you out buddy. Alright. Last question number 10. Do you have any channel goals and where can our viewers find you? This is your time to plug yourself. Okay. So the easiest part of the question is YouTube.com forward slash Larkinslayer. That's where to find me as far as channel goals. I mean you know we all want to get to that magic 1000 subscriber just to be monetized but another one of your guests said it's not only about the monetizations it's about YouTube actually the algorithm boosts your videos up when they suggested and all that stuff but it's also like a milestone it's a goal right it's a goal to to get to so I you know hopefully I can get there but you know if I don't I'll probably still be doing this anyway because it's just a ton of fun. Oh that it is that it is and I love your reviews are so crisp and clean you must have a really good camera because they're so I can tell when I'm watching yours how bright everything is I mean let me show you here my dirty desk my setup and what I work with my what I use for a camera is a Galaxy S7 phone I use Grimlock here I have poster board and two LED lamps nice that's how I kind of work my I'm using my iPhone X XS and I did buy these these are LED I mean I don't want to blind but yeah pretty bright yeah I have two of those so I just put them to try and I'll try to get rid of the the shadows as much as possible they're about 20 bucks a piece I am thinking of buying one of those light box things but man I gotta tell you it's like we're addicts because we feed off of each other and we want to do better and then we you know we buy more junk I don't know if we're helping each other or not I'm gonna outdo him on this it was Christmas break I decided I was gonna build my own light box I got on YouTube and there's like oh this is the cheapest way to do it so I must have spent an hour and a half up here cutting boxes and measuring everything and by the time I had this built I couldn't review anything in it I had watched one for how to make the dimensions to take pictures but not video in the wide screen I was like oh man yeah it's it's it's it can be challenging but I mean so far so good this works and I may get one more lamp that way I can have one on each side and then angle one up over my massive tripod that I use my this is octopunch so oh I got one of those yes and then this is I got my big one for the big stuff yeah so I'm already thinking of head ahead like man how am I gonna review Omega Supreme when that guy comes out another advantage you can let me try all time I buy those big trifold poster boards that you can get like in the store for display that's what I did for Predaking I mean Graham I had to what did I do oh I just took a picture of because I couldn't I didn't have anything for the tripod I tried to talk and it's shaking I was doing the Cloverfield thing while trying to talk about pretty king so I just took a picture of him got my microphone and narrated that's actually a really good idea because you can get all the nice detailed shots anyway and just make the pictures move in the video you constantly learn tricks doing this you're watching other people or you come up with ideas I love the editing part I've come up with so many neat little tricks with fading in and fading out like one of my favorite things to do you probably saw my comparisons I love to say well here's the siege figure compared to another have that slow fade into the new one I love doing that with my character oh yeah that's that's editing is also part of the fun so cool man a lot of times I talk like Captain Kirk just so in case I screw up there's a space where I can cut that out yeah that's what I got to learn to do because a lot of times when I do it I try to do that one take it's possible you try to do the one take it's not gonna happen you just got a yeah I think I've done one video that was all in one take and that when I was doing a top 10 list of the worst Marvel comic covers oh yeah I just went right through that I gotta see that I gotta look at that it's a good I did the top 10 worst Marvel comic cover but top 10 worst and the top 10 best of course my opinion I gotta ask you is issue number five one of the top 10 best it is the top 10 best yeah that was it that was it that was my number one that would be my number one two I was like man that that the shockwave and then you see are all dead I remember that vividly as a kid when I when I first picked up that issue oh yeah I was in it in Covington Virginia I was in Covington Virginia we were visiting somebody and there was a little comic book store and I went in just rolling the rack and I was like that's a must have and what was bad about that issue it had that fantastic cover oh yeah but inside the inside was garbage yeah the all the robots had the the high pants yeah they're like their legs are super long as the I just remember the secrets that the legs are super long yeah there's a totally different inside good stuff yeah Marvel comics was my g1 I lived out here in the boonies but we had a hell of an antenna I wanted to watch channel six you turn the dial on your television so the antenna would turn and so that was my g1 I could only watch the cartoon when I visited my grandparents in town so that's why I'm so well versed in g1 marvel I like the g1 that I I remember my first comic my I saw it at a Kroger's went back when you could buy comics in grocery stores and then um my um I liked it so much my parents actually bought me a subscription so I would get in the mail every uh every month so yeah good memories as a kid you know when you come home from school and you're like I got the new comic and then you run to your room and start reading it and stuff so and see that's what a lot of people who aren't into collecting don't understand why we do this it is the memories of the figure that you know that just keep us going for example I got a gift in the mail today I was planning on doing a unboxing I know what this is already I am so excited to get it because of the memories attached to what this is but I promised the guy who sent it to me I do an unboxing and a shout out so I'm like a kid at Christmas there's the Christmas tree and I can't touch it and I can't use your trick with a hairdryer I was just going to tell you that why why don't you get the hairdryer you know and you definitely you had to have that hairdryer as a kid because I don't see the use in it right now yeah exactly but yeah good good memories I mean and I think the funny part is a lot of kids growing up today won't be able to experience what we experience growing up because it's just a different world now right you know like when I came home from school you know we had a key nobody watched us for hours until the parents came home and you know you left to our own devices and our own toys and our whatever but what you think about it's all our babysitters was He-Man, Duke, Lion-O and Optimus Prime and then Bravestar and then cops oh yeah I remember that cops but these these kids they don't have heroes anymore I mean every character I mentioned was a hero to us you know ranks right up there with Luke Skywalker Superman and Spider-Man Dylan he watches shows with freaking Uncle Grandpa and Uncle Grandpa oh my god oh yeah and I got I remember I mentioned that that's one reason why I like rescue bots for my kids I mean Tony I know seriously rescue bots is like the dad is not a doofus you know a porpoffoon you know the the funny part is the mayor is the idiot and the main scientist he's kind of a dork yeah and and you know the while the robots have their quirkiness they're not childish either you know they're not um it which is odd because it's for preschool kids right I'm thinking to myself why do we give the older kids the more stupid stuff so weird I don't know the animation doesn't suck yeah but yeah it is what it is I am amazed about how many of these adult collectors I've had on this show and we've discussed rescue bots it's a good show man it's a good show freaking Netflix took it off man I haven't seen the new one though yet the rescue bots academy so I'm not sure why that's how that's like of course I don't have a satellite anymore we we stream everything because I was joking that the only time I can do these sit rep sessions is at 10 o'clock at night when my wife and son go to sleep so they're not watching Hugh Hulu suck up my internet oh yeah and since I'm done with you I've got that mortal combat beta to go play cool man cool well Joel that is it for the questions I thank you so much for agreeing to come on to the show so oh thank you thank you really enjoyed talking to you no definitely thank you very much appreciate it a lot man not a problem and for everybody who wants to see Joel's channel that is Larkin's lair I will put a description not a put description I will put a link in the description of this video and at the very end I will link his channel and one of his newest videos for him Joel once again thanks for coming on and talking to my people thank you thank you very much appreciate it and guys I want to thank you for watching uh don't forget to like don't forget to subscribe I try to put out you know videos once or twice a week just depends on my schedule sit reps at least once a week but I've got more guests coming on so who knows how many we'll see guys this is patriot pride signing out who are hey I really appreciate you guys stopping by my channel don't forget to like and don't forget to subscribe also check out some of my other videos that I've done on generation one transformers modern era transformers and toy hacks reprolabel sex once again this is patriot pride who are