AwesomeCast 761: Buff Judge Elvis and Other Questionable AI Things.

When you host a weekly live podcast, sometimes the lineup changes at the last minute. This week on AwesomeCast 761, Michael Sorg hands the mics to Intern Mac and Intern Tony for a jam-packed episode full of robots, AI television, VR nostalgia, and delightfully inappropriate holiday gifts.

We start in Sorg’s happy place: Transformers. Robosen has dropped a new Shockwave – a self-transforming Decepticon boombox robot that walks, talks, and even acts as a Bluetooth speaker. We talk through what it does, how programmable it is, and what it’s like seeing a whole lineup of Robosen Transformers auto-transform in sync (roughly $10K of robots on one floor). That leads straight into a look at Robosen’s Buzz Lightyear, mini Toy Story bots, and WALL-E & Eve – high-end toys that double as STEM coding platforms for kids (or grown-up kids).

From there, Mac shares a favorite detail from Apple’s recent Apple TV rebrand: the new “liquid glass” intro before your shows is built entirely with practical effects. Real glass panes, real cameras, and lots of meticulous compositing – no AI. We dig into why that matters in an industry rushing to AI-generate everything from logos to commercials and why small, craft-driven pieces like this still matter to artists and film majors dreaming about their first job.

Meanwhile in Sorg’s living room, the television is already living in 2030. His Telly-style TV runs an AI-generated news channel with a virtual anchor and surreal b-roll. Our favorite example: a story about a real judge who dresses as Elvis, paired with completely unhinged AI images of a buff Elvis judge that look nothing like the real person. It’s gas-station TV meets generative AI, and the crew is convinced this style of content is going to replace human-hosted pump and lobby screens sooner than later.

Things get messier when we revisit GameStop’s “Trade Anything” day. A Polygon story rounds up everything employees saw: taxidermy animals, bags of grass in tubes, cans of beans, cursed Sonic plushies, and even inappropriate material people tried to pawn off for store credit. GameStop’s corporate social channels loved the viral photos; front-line workers… not so much. We talk about the gap between marketing stunts and the people who have to live through them.

On the VR front, Sorg finds a mod project that ports classic PC shooters like Quake III Arena, Doom 3, Redneck Rampage, and Quake 4 into standalone VR on Meta Quest. We talk performance, what works in VR controls, and why these short, self-contained shooters make great testbeds for virtual reality. That leads into a nostalgia trip back to ’90s mall VR, when you’d strap into a giant ring and shuffle around polygon worlds at 10 frames per second.

Chachi’s Video Game Minute jumps into the upcoming Helldivers movie (with Justin Lin attached), Netflix’s proposed Warner Bros acquisition, and rumors about Japanese game studios forcing design applicants to draw by hand to prove they can actually create art without AI. We follow that with a panel discussion about Netflix possibly ending up with WB Games, DC Comics, the Batman Arkham series, Mortal Kombat, and more – and what happens if future Batman movies or games are locked behind a Netflix subscription.

Then it’s time for Tony’s Awesome Thing of the Week: the TikTok-viral world of “Butts on Things” – activity books, puzzles, coloring books, the Cheek-to-Cheek card game, and the legendary Blind Butt Box. It’s crude in concept but charming in execution, and it turns into an entire segment on weird gift ideas that absolutely crush at white-elephant exchanges.

We close the main show with some reflection: what Intern Mac and Intern Tony have learned about podcasting, video production, Apple’s weirder accessories (like sock purses), and the actual work involved in running live shows like AwesomeCast and Wrestling Mayhem Show. If you’ve ever wondered what an internship in podcast production really looks like, their stories are a great snapshot.

And if you’re a Patreon supporter, stick around: our post-show dives into some of the creepiest robot dogs the internet has to offer. You’ve been warned.