Tag Archives: Gears of War

American Chopper: Senior vs. Junior: Downsizing

12 Sep

NEW! September 12, 2011

You might recall that earlier in the year, when news of the OCC foreclosure broke, both Senior and his lawyer claimed it was a normal business restructuring.

It is not. Foreclosure is the last step a bank will take. They go from modifying the terms of the mortgage to restructuring and through 10 possible steps until they have no recourse but to foreclose. Banks do not want to foreclose because that means the client has defaulted on a loan, has been unable to make a payment plan, or demonstrate a willingness to work on one. This is the most expensive and least profitable thing a bank can do. Banks do not like to foreclose and in this economic climate they will jump through hoops to  get a client on  paying basis.

Seeing as how Senior is looking to build a newer- and smaller- HQ because the bank is taking his old one, I have to wonder about how OCC is doing. I have no facts, no information, and I am sure the economy hit them very hard, but from all appearances, Senior is full of it when he says how good the business is.

Which brings us to this week’s show, called Downsizing.

PJD and OCC each have new clients. PJD got the big one, Epic Games. They gave Paulie carte blanche to go nuts on a Gears of War 3 bike for the upcoming game. They toured the headquarters and saw designs and game plans. OCC got Feather Free Zone, who wasn’t happy with PJD. They had a bad experience and weren’t happy with Paulie but they must have made Senior’s day when they badmouthed his son and what they claimed was Paulie’s lack of professionalism. But listen closely and you’ll hear that they just had their feelings hurt, they were upset they had to wait a few minutes and their “personal relationship with Vinnie” didn’t get them anywhere. (Of course, we only got one side of that story and no footage.) I admit that Paulie should have handled it better because there is no reason to not make a possible client happy, but they were complaining about Paulie being unprofessional? Saying what they did on camera was not professional either. And speaking of professional, Jason Pohl sat in and laughed like a monkey at the Paulie insults, so much so that he almost fell over in his chair. But in the end, PJD is making a Gears of War bike, and OCC is building a bike for a company most of you don’t know.

(And Best Buy got a nice plug when they set up PJD with a gaming system and the blue-shirted tech sat in on the gameplay.)

The Gears of War bike is actually a trike, covered in working gears, with a cable steering system. When Paulie starts the mock-up listen for his crack about the logo reminding him of when he fired Odie. BTW- have you noticed that since Senior rehired Odie we have not seen him? Since Senior is downsizing I bet he was the first dead weight to go.

As for the foreclosure, Senior blamed the economy, true, said they have to adjust, true, and said the bank is not willing to work with them. Bull. As I said, foreclosure is a bank’s last resort. Banks (especially after Pres. Obama mandated some finance changes) will go almost to the ends of the Earth to get a mortgage refinanced. (Have you seen all the bank failures and bailouts? They want your money.) I repeat: Foreclosure is a bank’s last resort. It costs them the most and gains them the least of all their options. Senior could easily have gotten a deal with them to keep his building with lower payments. Should we believe Senior that it is more cost-effective to build an entirely new building and move the operation? And why would a bank, in this economy, want that property? They will never sell it for what Senior must owe them. This is a depressed market. It is a net loss.

Senior either got cranky or smart, take your pick, and made Jason rework his design. Finally. And he took Jason around the shop to see what they had in stock because Jason, as we all know, knows nothing about motorcycles. He even brought in Rick (who he insincerly called “the Great Rick Petko” so Jason is either a snotty prick or he knows that the fans love Rick and hate him) to give him some pointers.

Rick was on the end of a totally uncalled for (and stupid) Senior insult about protective earwear, and as Senior walked away, Rick said “the things he says, no wonder everyone sues his ass.” Rick is the one guy Senior should not piss off. If Senior losses Rick there goes the one sane man and great worker he has.  Senior later came out to talk to him about it (maybe he realized how much he needs Rick) and Senior called him, half-jokingly, sensitive. Rick told Senior that he will push it too far and he’ll walk out the door. Keep your fingers crossed. And with the suits settled, Rick is back to talking to the guys at PJD. I’m not sure I believe it, or if it was serious, but Paulie said that Rick was talking to Vinnie about going to PJD. For lunch, at least. But in the end Rick didn’t show.

And as far as Mike Ammirati, Rick pointed out that, “as usual,” he screwed up the handlebars. This was just after Senior said they’ll learn from their mistakes and get the bars right the first time. How many years has been doing this? NOW they’ll get the handlebars right?

Near the end of the show, Senior called in the whole shop to tell them about the new developments. It was made out as Senior being a benevolent father-figure. One of the office flunkies said that Senior was “a millionaire who doesn’t need the shop, but he’s doing it for you to keep your jobs. He’s 62 and he should be retiring but he isn’t” (I paraphrased but that is more or less it.) Senior promised that no one was going to lose their jobs but I say just wait. But one thing I do believe is that no matter how badly the business is doing Senior is filthy rich.

Next week, Paulie unveils the Gears of War 3 bike at Comic-Con, and we all know that the show teases are often more hype than truth, but it looks like Paulie gets serious about hiring Rick and we hear a voice over of Rick saying “I’m gonna tell senior that I’m going to quit.” Senior must realize Rick is unhappy because, for the first time, he singled out Rick at an unveil and said “he’s the best.”

We’ll see if this goes anywhere.

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American Chopper: Senior vs. Junior: Return of the Black Widow

5 Sep

September 5, 2011

Last week, in the most anti-climactic episode ever, the Teutuls signed a settlement finally giving Senior the shares of OCC that he wanted. Paulie added the condition that he gets the Black Widow bike and after only a few minutes thought Senior agreed. The tease for this week’s show seems to be some kind of battle over the bike. We’ll see.

The show began with Senior being informed by his lawyer that Paulie was going to pick up the bike and expected it to be running. It has just been sitting around and needed maintenance. Senior got pissed that he found that out at the last-minute. “Typical Paulie last-minute,” he growled. He thought the bike would be turned over as-is and blamed Paulie for changing the rules. The person he should be mad at is the lawyers. That should have been hammered out already.

This week PJD finished the Fist bike while OCC started a Power Probe bike. Power Probe makes electrical testing equipment and presented Senior with a customized tool, which he will never use since he barely does any work on the bikes anymore.

Six minutes in, like last week, Jason Pohl appeared on-screen to act like somebody. He called the Power Probe tool “a product we use everyday.” Really? “I have a lot of people here who use it.” He has a lot of people there who use it? He does? He gets worse every week. And remember the problem with the lousy handlebars he designed last week? He blamed the mechanics for the “confusion” over the handlebars. Let’s be clear, and this came straight from Rick, there was no “confusion,” Jason’s design was impractical.

Paulie and Vinnie went to OCC to get the bike. They asked Mikey but he decided not to go. However, he did bring Paulie a black widow cake to celebrate. The bike was in the showroom and so were a dozen or so gawkers taking pictures of them. Senior sent outa kid to tell them that they had to go through the whole shop to take it out. Why? Just to stick it to them.

Senior paid his son a backhand compliment. Going to OCC himself was “a sign of humbleness.”

He also said that Vinnie was in a hurry to get out “like he had cheeseburgers waiting outside.” Why should Vinnie want to stick around? To see him? After the way Senior treated him like shit? Vinnie did all the work and got all the crap. I wouldn’t want to see Senior either. And Senior taking a shot at someone’s weight? Sorry, not everyone has suspiciously inflated muscles like he did.

Eventually Senior stopped watching them on camera and came out and shook their hands. They exchanged some small talk and Paulie and Vinnie left with the bike. No fireworks, no excitement, no big deal.

Of course Senior said that “Paulie didn’t look me in the eye,” and it was “a sign of feeling guilty.” This guy can’t leave well enough alone. Every lawsuit has been settled, the bike was exchanged, and he can’t let it die. A couple of days later Senior was still grumbling and said the he didn’t like Vinnie and acted like he was Gandhi for shaking Vinnie’s hand. Then for no reason he said that he “gave him everything he asked for and he still isn’t interested in being a family again.” I’m not sure if he meant Mikey or Paulie but it doesn’t matter.  Can you blame either one?

And Mikey still has no intention of seeing his father, and after this episode, never mind all the others, I don’t blame him.

The last third of the show was about the bike build, and Power Pro really got their money’s worth the way Mike Ammirati slobbered over their tools.

There was a little more talk about OCC having to move and Rick said they should just go back to the old shop since Senior put a new roof on it. Senior told him since it was next door to PJD Rick could go over there and build bikes on his lunch break “since nobody there can.” I guess he forgot how he got smoked in the Cadillac Build Off.

The Fist bike with its biometric starter came out great, but the Power Probe bike was gaudier than usual. It was red and yellow with lightning bolts and a lot of extra accent lights and almost looked like a Hulkamania bike,  but I have to admit they nailed the theme. And (coincidentally? I think not) it had an unusual push button starter.

At the OCC unveil, Senior couldn’t make it so who was the first one introduced? Jason. He did all the talking and though he gave credit to everyone, he talked like he was in charge. And who can blame him the way Senior treats him?

Paulie worked, almost literally, to the last minute before the unveil, and Paulie gave Vinnie the honor of riding the bike on stage. Part of this episode was about the history between them. They showed some clips from the very first episode where they worked on the Black Widow bike, the first build they did together, and you can see how they developed a friendship. Compare that to Senior who over the years has lost everyone close to him.

NEXT WEEK: Paulie designs a Gears of War 3 bike.

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