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Tanks A Lot!

Toren, Joe, and Kevin are joined by Kerberos Productions‘ Martin Cirulis to talk about landships,or “tanks”. We’ll hear about Britain’s attempts to hide this new weapon from their enemy while simultaneously naming it, the best and worst tanks of World War II, and some of the weirdest, biggest, and coolest tanks ever designed.

Sorry for the lateness folks, technical difficulties!

Music: “My Tank” by The Darkest of the Hillside Thickets

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Movies
Tank Girl
Kevin: 5/10
Joe: 6/10
Toren: 2/10

Tank
Toren: 5/10

A-Team
Kevin: 7/10
Toren: 5/10
Joe: 5/10

Kelly’s Heroes
Kevin: 7/10
Joe: 8/10

The Beast
Kevin: 8/10

Best Defense
Kevin: 1/10

27 Responses

  1. I recently read this article, which I thought might be of interest since you were laughing at the idea of James Gardner owning a tank in the movie ‘Tank’…

    http://www.automobilemag.com/features/0804_how_to_buy_a_tank/index.html

    On a releated note, Martin mentioned the Matrix during the show, which had a character called Tank, who drove the ship. Also, I believe the Japanese anime ‘Cowboy Bebop’ had a character called ‘Tank’. And of course there is Frank ‘The Tank’ from the film Old School. None of these characters handled tanks (to my recollection) but since I was thinking about characters named tank, I went with it.

    Finally, I vaguely recall Marvel had a character called Tank in one of it’s alternate universe settings. Universe X I believe. I believe he was an Iron Man like character.

  2. I recently read this article, which I thought might be of interest since you were laughing at the idea of James Gardner owning a tank in the movie ‘Tank’…

    http://www.automobilemag.com/features/0804_how_to_buy_a_tank/index.html

    On a releated note, Martin mentioned the Matrix during the show, which had a character called Tank, who drove the ship. Also, I believe the Japanese anime ‘Cowboy Bebop’ had a character called ‘Tank’. And of course there is Frank ‘The Tank’ from the film Old School. None of these characters handled tanks (to my recollection) but since I was thinking about characters named tank, I went with it.

    Finally, I vaguely recall Marvel had a character called Tank in one of it’s alternate universe settings. Universe X I believe. I believe he was an Iron Man like character.

    1. Sorry, no character named Tank in Cowboy Bebop. That was the name of the song used as the opening theme. That’s what I get for not Googling it first.

  5. You forgot about the happy middle ground in your crazy German super-heavies section, this bad boy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landkreuzer_P._1000_Ratte . If completed it would’ve been 5 times bigger than the Maus and be armed with the turret from a battlecruiser and powered by 2 U-boat engines. Surprisingly, nothing to do with Porsche.

    Also, speaking of RPG’s the Israeli Merkava has for years had a series of chains with steel balls on the end suspended around the rim of it’s turret in order to deflect just such a device from it’s oh-so-vulnerable bits.

    AND, speaking of the T-34, in 2006 an unarmed T-34 that formed part of a war memorial in Budapest was taken over and actually gotten running again by protestors who began using it against the police in a riot over some huge government scandal.

  11. An interesting tank themed storyline/turn based tactical combat for PS3:Valkyrie Chronicles.
    With a Japanese heritage the artwork is glorious and the storyline is quite good and very immersive. Wasn’t a big hit but is recognised as one of best games for the PS3. There is an anime spin off from the game too.
    In some respect the lead protagonists tank is nearly a character.

  12. Fun tank battles can be had in Company of Heroes.
    Generally Isometric, but the camera can move 360 degrees.

    Still looks great, five years from release.

  13. Fun tank battles can be had in Company of Heroes.
    Generally Isometric, but the camera can move 360 degrees.

    Still looks great, five years from release.

  14. My Tank is Fight! is a fantastic book, I picked it up right when it came out. EVERYONE should by a copy. Yes, I’m talking to you, Caustic Soda fans.

  15. Really Joe? “By Americans, for Americans”?
    How many Canadians do you know that could fix a Porche, let alone a Porche tank?

    Speaking of spalling, I just watched the commentary for “Big Trouble in Little China” and Kurt Russell mentioned that, while filming a different movie, paint flakes that came off the sides of the tank (heh…tank…) that they were swimming in made him and a costar painfully blind for two days.

    A good tank tabletop that hasn’t been mentioned was “Ogre”. It involves a gigantic nuclear-powered AI robotank. Just like in real life, a good strategy is to use cheap mobile hovercraft to mob it.

  18. I know this podcast is now six months old, but I wanted to comment because I was shocked to not hear the 2009 film ‘Lebanon’ discussed. It’s set in the 1982 war between Israel and Lebanon, following an Israeli tank crew.

    The daring part of the movie is that it was filmed almost exclusively inside the tank. What the crew experiences and feels. I don’t think the film was out and out incredible, but it’s an extraordinary capturing of a tank crew’s point of view. (I believe the film’s director actually served in that role in that war.)

    Before I saw it, I imagined sitting inside a tank would feel somewhat sterile, isolated, and metallic. Instead, the film presents it as hot, humid, filled with smoke, everything covered in oil, with water condensing and running down the walls. Like the crew is sitting inside the living lungs of some great monster.

  19. Just dropped in to mention Lebanon as well but see I’ve been beaten to the punch.
    The movie seems to be highly regarded by most people but I thought it was terrible. Still, it’s in a tank, or at least claims to be…

  20. speaking of anime, i can recall at least two manga/anime series that have significant usage of tanks:
    New Dominion Tank Police, and Those Who Hunt Elves.
    I’ve only seen bits of these, but it is somewhat amusing to see what happens when you plunk a Type 74 tank down in a fantasy series.

  21. speaking of anime, i can recall at least two manga/anime series that have significant usage of tanks:
    New Dominion Tank Police, and Those Who Hunt Elves.
    I’ve only seen bits of these, but it is somewhat amusing to see what happens when you plunk a Type 74 tank down in a fantasy series.

  22. For more popular culture, recently an anime premiered called Girls und Panzer set in a world where it is a common high school girls sport of driving WWII era tanks in friendly combat competition. What was expected to be a minor niche show suddenly became quite popular in both the US and Japan. http://www.crunchyroll.com/girls-und-panzer

    Another link this actually has to a Caustic Soda discussion is to Earthquakes and your discussion of the Japanese earthquake you had during Followups 3 episode. The town the heroes are based out of was devastated in the earthquake, but the town has been able to use tourism inspired by the show to help boost their economy afterwords.

  23. Just thought I’d add my two cents having listened to this episode again, and really enjoyed it again. I’d love to hear what Martin’s private tank story was, the one he didn’t get to tell, but I’m guessing it’s a bit late now.

    Just recently I saw Fury (2014), which I thought was very good. Very gritty and realistic (seeming) in many ways, and apart from a couple of failings (the rape scene quite frankly could have been played out more realistically and ‘better’, for want of a better word) it was an excellent film and I recommend it highly. That said, it was you guys who put me on to it in the first place via a Facebook post a while ago.

    Keep up the great work. These episodes really don’t age. 😉

  24. Just thought I’d add my two cents having listened to this episode again, and really enjoyed it again. I’d love to hear what Martin’s private tank story was, the one he didn’t get to tell, but I’m guessing it’s a bit late now.

    Just recently I saw Fury (2014), which I thought was very good. Very gritty and realistic (seeming) in many ways, and apart from a couple of failings (the rape scene quite frankly could have been played out more realistically and ‘better’, for want of a better word) it was an excellent film and I recommend it highly. That said, it was you guys who put me on to it in the first place via a Facebook post a while ago.

    Keep up the great work. These episodes really don’t age. 😉