Useless Knowledge

[wei yau]

I'm sure that all of us have a fair amount of utterly useless knowledge in their heads. Stuff that aren't applicable to anything in our lives. Stuff that's wholly uninteresting to anyone else.

I know I do and I'm proud of it.

My favorite bit of useless knowledge. I know the "real names" of the "original" G.I. Joe Team:

Hawk - Clayton Abernathy
Stalker - Lonzo Wilkinson
Snake Eyes - Classified
Scarlett - Shanna O'Hara
Breaker - Alvin Kibbey
Clutch - Lance Steinberg
Steeler - Ralph Pulaski
Flash - Anthony Gambello
Zap - Rafael Melendez
Short Fuse - Eric Freistadt
Grunt - Robert Graves
Rock 'n' Roll - Craig McConnell
Grand Slam - Barney James

Anyone else have any useless knowledge to share?

[Goliath]

Characters from the original Transformers series whose names I remember:

Autobots:

Optimus Prime
Jazz
Prowl
Bluestreak
Bumblebee
Brawn
Cliffjumper
Huffer
Sideswipe
Sunstreaker
Grimlock
Slag
Sludge
Snarl
Swoop
Trailbreaker
Wheeljack
Ratchet
Ironhide
Hoist
Grapple
Red Alert
Skyfire
Silverbolt
Air Raid
Slingshot
Hotspot
First Aid
Blades
Superion
Defensor
Blaster
Steeljaw
Rewind
Cosmos
Omega Supreme
Computron
Tracks
Warpath
Perceptor
Skids
Beachcomber
Seaspray
Powerglide
Hound
Ultra Magnus
Hot Rod
Rodimus Prime
Kup
Arcee
Springer
Elita-1
Wheelie
Wreck-Gar
Metroplex
Fortress Maximus
Cerebros

Decepticons:

Megatron
Starscream
Soundwave
Laserbeak
Buzzsaw
Rumble
Frenzy
Ratbat
Thundercracker
Skywarp
Thrust
Dirge
Ramjet
Shrapnel
Bombshell
Kickback
Reflector
Scrapper
Mixmaster
Long Haul
Hook
Bonecrusher
Scavenger
Devastator
Onslaught
Vortex
Blast Off
Brawl
Swindle
Bruticus
Motormaster
Dead End
Breakdown
Dragstrip
Wildrider
Menasor
Astrotrain
Blitzwing
Shockwave
Galvatron
Cyclonus
Scourge
Abominus
Razorclaw
Predaking
Trypticon
Scorponok

Other Characters:

Unicron
The Quintessons
Spike
Sparkplug
Carly
Chip


Damn, I know that I should remember more than that, too....

[wei yau]

Wow. I am seriously impressed.

Based on that roster, I'm guessing you and I are probably about the same age (mid-thirties?). I'm familiar with most of those Transformers and it appears that the list ends at about the time the movie debuted.

I'm not at all familiar with the new Transformers. I pretty much lost interest during the Headmasters/Targetmasters line.

[Goliath]

Wow. I am seriously impressed.

Thanks. :D :nerd:



Based on that roster, I'm guessing you and I are probably about the same age (mid-thirties?).



Close...I'll be turning 28 next month. :oldman: :D



I'm familiar with most of those Transformers and it appears that the list ends at about the time the movie debuted.



Well, some of the characters are from the third and fourth seasons, with very few being from the fourth (the movie was between the second and third season). After the movie played in theatres, NBC stopped showing the show on Saturdays, hence I couldn't tape them, anymore... :( So, I watched the episodes from seasons 1 and 2 that I did catch a lot, hence why I have more familiarity with characters from seasons 1 and 2.

In fact, I was so ignorant of goings on in seasons 3-4 that I didn't even know that Optimus Prime was revived until I hunted down the episodes on the internet.

However, I have all four seasons on DVD now. :) One of the episodes that I'm seriously impressed with (and that I wish I had seen when it originally aired) was The God Gambit.



I'm not at all familiar with the new Transformers. I pretty much lost interest during the Headmasters/Targetmasters line.

Yeah, I didn't have a whole lot of interest in them, either, mostly due to the fact that I didn't have access to the show at that point, so I didn't have a "feel" for the new characters.

[livius drusus]

Holy crap! Y'all are crazy, crazy nerds. :frink:

The only thing I can offer up that is remotely comparable is a little something I learned in 5th grade (I think). It's called the Preposition Song and it's sung to the tune of Yankee Doodle Dandy.

This is the preposition song
Above, about, between,
Across, around, within, without,
In, before, with, from, down, by
Near, for, up, except, through, to
Under, over, after,
Of, into, against, upon, to end the prepositions!

[wei yau]

In fact, I was so ignorant of goings on in seasons 3-4 that I didn't even know that Optimus Prime was revived until I hunted down the episodes on the internet.

However, I have all four seasons on DVD now. :) One of the episodes that I'm seriously impressed with (and that I wish I had seen when it originally aired) was The God Gambit.

Of course, now you'll have to tell me about that episode.

I have to confess that while I watched the Transformers, I never really committed any of them to memory. I must have limited memory resources and they're all being used up for G.I. Joe (A Real American Hero).

About the Transformers movie, I went to see it with my cousin. We were the oldest people there...theatre full of kids. When Optimus Prime bought it...well, I laughed my ass off. I'm a Megatron Man. I got some serious dirty looks from the kids around me.

Fuck 'em. I could take 'em in a fight if I had to.

[Nil Desperandum]

3.1415926535897932384626433832.

From memory.

Utterly useless, but when recited to my significant other during intimacy, doth moisten her delicate parts something fierce.

[wei yau]

Holy crap! Y'all are crazy, crazy nerds. :frink:

The only thing I can offer up that is remotely comparable is a little something I learned in 5th grade (I think). It's called the Preposition Song and it's sung to the tune of Yankee Doodle Dandy.

This is the preposition song
Above, about, between,
Across, around, within, without,
In, before, with, from, down, by
Near, for, up, except, through, to
Under, over, after,
Of, into, against, upon, to end the prepositions!

Well, it's no Schoolhouse Rock. But, it's got a good bit and you can dance to it.

[Roland98]

Blaster

Heh, I had that one--he was a radio. I always preferred Transformers, GI Joe and He-man over the girly cartoons, though I'll be damned if I could even name 5 characters off the top of my head. I do, however, know all of the Tiny Toons theme song...

[livius drusus]

A good bit of what, eldar? :giggle:

[wei yau]

Blaster

Heh, I had that one--he was a radio.

And he was a pale imitation of the original master of audio destruction...Soundwave!!

There was one that was a microscope...Perceptor?

[wei yau]

A good bit of what, eldar? :giggle:

Yeah, I see the edit button. I see it mocking me, just as you have. It taunts me about my typographic errors.

But, I won't fix it! I won't. I'm stronger than that.

[JoeP]

Sorry, I hide my useless knowledge even from myself. Along with most of my useful knowledge. It's in there somewhere but I have lost the password.

[wade-w]

I know the "real names" of the "original" G.I. Joe Team:



/me blinks

Ummm... you kids do realize, I hope, that "GI Joe" predates some cartoon by decades?

[wei yau]

I know the "real names" of the "original" G.I. Joe Team:



* wade-w blinks

Ummm... you kids do realize, I hope, that "GI Joe" predates some cartoon by decades?


That is exactly why "original" is in quotes. I'm well aware of the 12" GI Joe and his kung-fu grip. But, I grew up with Joe after he was reduced in stature. He might not be as popular with the ladies now that he's only 3 3/4", but he's a much a better toy.

[Socratoad]

Useless knowledge .......... hmmmmmm, let me see. Unlike all you young whippersnappers :oldman: I know zilch about transformers :bonk: However I'm a font of useless knowledge, and have even been known to make up some on the spot to make a point or to express my boredom. Such as:

Did you know that the average Australian duck-billed platypus lives on the average six months longer than the Tasmanian duck-billed platypus?


I used to be subjected to many boring cocktail parties relating to business ass-kissing. Nothing brings out latent pretentiousness as these life-sucking little gatherings.

So I would worm my way into a small circle of dedicated ass-kissers and with a somewhat professorial expression would unload my little made-up platypus story. Then watch the faces as the assembled twits tried to ponder that one, a real conversation stopper, as some may suspect a set-up but no one wants to drop the potential brown-nosing, just in case ....... some call it networking :haha:


PS: do not try this with Aussies :sheeprope: as they will spot the bull-shit instantly.

[Goliath]

Of course, now you'll have to tell me about that episode.


Well, it starts with Cosmos being chased by Astrotrain (carrying Starscream and Thrust). Cosmos just completed a surveying mission scanning a chunk of deep space for a new kind of energon source, and Cosmos is trying desperately to keep the information away from the Decepticons. However, he gets shot down...

Cut to the planet Titan. A priest yells at some lackeys, saying something like "Hurry! If the sky god is not ready for the sacrafice, then you'll clean the temple floor with your tongues!" The workers then get into position to move the "Sky god" statue as some peasants bring offerings. The peasants lay down their offerings, but one of them begs the priest to let him keep the food..."my family starves!" Just as the priest is about to beat the shit out of the peasant, a group of rebels led by the cute elfish rebel chick (forgot her name) attack. Their attack drives away the people animating the statue, and the "Sky god" statue crumbles. As the rebels drive away the temple people, the elf chick says "Your gods are nothing but an excuse for high taxes and harsh laws! There are no Sky gods!"

Anyways, the rebels take the temple officials prisoner, and they're bickering about whether or not the Sky gods are real...and that's when Cosmos crashes in the distance.

Astrotrain, Starscream, and Thrust realize that the people here worship Transformers as gods, so they act like brutal, tyrannical gods. They find a cave with crystals packed with energon (the energy source that Cosmos was out to investigate), but the crystals are highly unstable. The three Decepticons enslave the flesh creatures and make them harvest the crystals.

Meanwhile, the elf chick manages to use Cosmos' communicator and homing beacon to alert the Autobots back on Earth as to what's happening. Perceptor, Jazz, and Omega Supreme answer the call. However, Titan is so far away that Omega uses most of his energy getting to Titan...he can't even transform after landing.

So, to make a longer story short, Perceptor and Jazz find the rebels, the rebel chick gets captured and almost sacrificed, Perceptor reenergizes Omega Supreme with a few crystals, and the decepticons beat it, but not before blowing up the crystal caves.

The whole time while the Autobots are saving the elf-like critters, they keep saying things like "Save us, and we will worship you!", to which Jazz responds "We're not gods! We're just fancy machines. But yeah, we'll help ya!"

Anyways, that was a bit of a rant...but it's a cool episode in that it's a discussion of theism vs. atheism and about how religion can be used to fool people.



About the Transformers movie, I went to see it with my cousin. We were the oldest people there...theatre full of kids. When Optimus Prime bought it...well, I laughed my ass off. I'm a Megatron Man. I got some serious dirty looks from the kids around me.



LOL...if I were there at the time, I probably would've been right with those kids giving you the dirty looks... :glare: :D

I know that this sounds corny as hell, but the death of Optimus Prime was, in many ways, the signaling of an end of innocence. I was emotionally numb for quite awhile after seeing that movie.

Edited to say: I remember the cute elfish rebel chick's name now: Tallaria (sp?)....bah, I'm too damn lazy to edit my rambling episode description.

[Goliath]

Blaster

Heh, I had that one--he was a radio.

And he was a pale imitation of the original master of audio destruction...Soundwave!!



Yeah, although I was generally more of an Autobot fan, I had to hand the battle of coolness between Soundwave and Blaster to Soundwave....Blaster seemed like too much of a brainless, stoned twit at times.


There was one that was a microscope...Perceptor?

Yep, the chief scientist. :yup:

[livius drusus]

Don't say I never gave y'all nuthin' (http://www.freethought-forum.com/forum/arcade.php?do=play&gameid=86&resolution=plus25). :)

[Roland98]

OPTIMUS PRIME DIED?????

Where the fuck have I been?

[Dingfod]

My head is so full of useless information it may explode at any time, taking out an entire city block with tidbit shrapnel and snippet fragments. I cannot just pull the stuff out at will, it comes blurting out on impulse only, you never know what I'm going to come up with. It is good for only one thing really, kicking my Trivial Pursuit-loving brothers and sisters asses at their own favorite game, just don't ask me a sports question, I don't know squat about sports.

A long-time friend of mine, who sadly died in a motorcycle accident last year, once said to me "Every time you add some useless piece of information to your storehouse of knowledge, something useful falls out." Probably true.

[Ymir's blood]

Not something useless that I know, but rather something I did. Just for 'old time's sake,' I converted this figure of Cobra Commander (http://web.infoave.net/~pitshade/photos/cobra1.jpg).

[beyelzu]

Don't say I never gave y'all nuthin' (http://www.freethought-forum.com/forum/arcade.php?do=play&gameid=86&resolution=plus25). :)
why thank you,

and its not even my birthday or nothin



:D

[LadyShea]

I can recite the Preamble perfectly, and I learned it from Schoolhouse Rock (so maybe everyone knows it by heart and therefore it's not impressive)

[Goliath]

OPTIMUS PRIME DIED?????


Sadly, yes. In Transformers: The Movie, Prime and Megatron had an epic (and final) battle. Optimus Prime ended up fatally wounded, and Megatron was so heavily wounded as to practically be non-functional, until Unicron remade him into Galvatron.

However, Optimus Prime was brought back to life in The Return of Optimus Prime parts 1 and 2 (episodes 94 and 95).

Edited to say: Not only did Transformers: The Movie see the death of Optimus Prime, but the death of many other autobots as well, including: Ironhide, Wheeljack, Ratchet, Windcharger (damn! forgot Windcharger in my list of characters in my first post in this thread), and Prowl.

And the rest of those valiant autobots will never be brought back to life, since the great tomb/spaceship that housed their remains ended up being sabotaged and steered into a nearby star in Dark Awakening.

[Megatron]

I do, however, know all of the Tiny Toons theme song...

We're tiny, we're toony, we're all a little loony,
And in this cartoony, we're invading your TV
We're comic dispensers, we cracked up all the censors,
On Tiny Toon Adventures get a dose of comedy
So here's Acme Acres, it's a whole wide world apart,
Our home sweet home, it stands alone, a cartoon work of art
The scripts were rejected, expect the unexpected
On Tiny Toon Adventures, it's about to start
They're furry, they're funny, they're Babs and Buster Bunny,
Montana Max has money, Elmyra is a pain
Here's Hamton and Plucky, Dizzy Devil's yucky,
Furrball's unlucky, and Gogo is insane
At Acme Looniversity we earn our toon degree,
The teaching staff's been getting laughs since 1933
We're tiny, we're toony, we're all a little loony,
It's Tiny Toon Adventures, come and join the fun
..... and now our song is done


..............don't ask. :doh:

[Godless Dave]

Ronnie James Dio's real last name is Padovana.

Ozzy Osbourne's real name is John Michael Osbourne.

Judas Priest was originally a four-piece. Their record company pressured them to add a second guitar, so they picked up Glenn Tipton.

[wei yau]

Not something useless that I know, but rather something I did. Just for 'old time's sake,' I converted this figure of Cobra Commander (http://web.infoave.net/~pitshade/photos/cobra1.jpg).

Coolness. All Hail Cobra!

Is that a Heroclix fig as a base? Or is that scratch-built?

[wei yau]

Don't say I never gave y'all nuthin' (http://www.freethought-forum.com/forum/arcade.php?do=play&gameid=86&resolution=plus25). :)

What? I don't slack enough from work by posting on this board? Now, you're gonna get me addicted to the arcade?

[livius drusus]

Don't act like you don't love it, eldar. :nyahnyah:

[Cool Hand]

I know the "real names" of the "original" G.I. Joe Team:



* wade-w blinks

Ummm... you kids do realize, I hope, that "GI Joe" predates some cartoon by decades?

Yeah, I was rubbing my eyes thinking the same thing. I grew up with the real G.I. Joe from 1964, only to see all the cool M-1 rifles, knives, grenades, jeeps, bazookas, helmets, fatigues, and shit like that replaced by stupid "adventure" crap because of the backlash against the military near the end of the Vietnam War.

G.I. Joe became "Action Joe." He got "lifelike" hair, a beard, several adventure buddies, and started driving around in an ATV, wearing Steve Irwin clothes and killing sharks and crocodiles, long before Steve Irwin or even Crocodile Dundee. This was still the 12" action figure. This was when the Sears catalogue was a source of countless hours of daydreaming about getting the latest and greatest G.I. Joe stuff. I remember thinking I had died and gone to heaven when one Christmas I got the G.I. Joe helicopter with real rotating blades that would seat two 12" G.I. Joes.

G.I. Joe was long dead for me before Hasbro ever thought about reintroducing him as a much smaller plastic figure. Those small figures had none of the charm of those posable and changeable original guys. The accessories with G.I. Joe were so much cooler then too. How can you beat a scale version of a bazooka with a spring that really shoots plastic rounds across the room?

Cool Hand

[Ymir's blood]

Not something useless that I know, but rather something I did. Just for 'old time's sake,' I converted this figure of Cobra Commander (http://web.infoave.net/~pitshade/photos/cobra1.jpg).

Coolness. All Hail Cobra!

Is that a Heroclix fig as a base? Or is that scratch-built?
It's a HeroClix figure. A friend who worked at a local comic+gaming store gave me a bunch of figures and I've been slowing converting them to other uses.

The original for this figure was "Lobster Johnson" from the Indy line. I removed some insignia from the torso and sculpted the cowl from Green Stuff putty. The eyes are actually just painted on.

[wei yau]

It's a HeroClix figure. A friend who worked at a local comic+gaming store gave me a bunch of figures and I've been slowing converting them to other uses.

The original for this figure was "Lobster Johnson" from the Indy line. I removed some insignia from the torso and sculpted the cowl from Green Stuff putty. The eyes are actually just painted on.

Nice work. I've been toying with the idea of converting some HeroClix figs. I have in mind to create The Question. Should be pretty easy, I think. Just having trouble finding the right base figure to use.