HasLab Unicron and New Transformers Comics Discussion

Hi, this is John Barber from RDW Publishing.

You are listening to the GeekCast Radio Network.

Hello and welcome to an all new generation of

All Things Transformers. I'm Steve Megatron and

joining me is TFG1 Mike. Today we're going to

be talking over some of the news and notes and

then have a Transformers topic to talk about.

So it's time to transform and transcend here

on All Things Transformers. Why are you using

a weird voice? Because... Reasons Okay So San

Diego Comic -Con just kind of happened last week

Actually two weeks ago the 17th to the 21st of

July was San Diego Comic -Con out there in San

Diego, California and Holy hell Hasbro and has

lab Announced and showed off war for Cybertron

unicorn this thing is massive you belong to me

yeah it's yeah it's a little insane to be i mean

everyone was like i mean it's cool yeah it's

cool but it's yeah it's i don't know who can

afford these type of things yeah so this is a

has lab kind of kickstarter thing um it's not

it's not officially sanctioned no no has lab

it has bro pulse has lab it's it's part of hasbro

but instead of it's kind of like it's kind of

like how mattel uh... medical actor yet well

actually super seven now but yeah but it was

kinda like how much i was trying to get snake

mountain made and the only way they could do

that is if people plop down six hundred dollars

uh... in a kickstarter campaign because that's

what it was a cost to get the snake mountain

playset this is kinda long same thing uh... but

it's basically a two -and -a -half -foot tall

unicorn in planet mode and robot mode and The

product images of this are just amazing. I Mean,

it's highly detailed and it's it's much better

than the you know current trilogy one that we

foresaw in the past If you scroll down a little

bit in the the comments, there's a funny one

that says For a time are you considered sparing

your wretched little bank accounts? But now you

shall witness its dismemberment. Yep. Yeah, I

saw that. That was hilarious. Yeah, I mean, it's...

It's very cool. Most of the comments that I'm

seeing have nothing to do with what the price

is. It's more of, where am I gonna put that thing?

Like, that's what everyone I keep talking to

keeps saying to me. Like, I don't have room for

a two and a half foot tall unicorn. And everything

about this thing looks amazing. All of the images

are just super cool. I'm actually on the campaign

page right now. If you go to the campaign page,

in planet mode, the teeth around the center of

basically his mouth. You know, how he eats planets.

All those little teeth open, so that's highly

detailed. Um, just everything about it is so

friggin' cool. Does it come with planet smashing

hands? Um, pretty much, yeah. I'm being facetious.

No, I mean, the hand, like, I'm looking at a

picture. It's funny you even say that I'm looking

at the last picture on this thing and his hand

is friggin' huge. It's, it's crazy. It's awesome.

Um, very, very cool. Like you know if you had

like a little mini planet Cybertron or something

you could basically crush it under his foot Just

so everyone knows for the the the campaign here

Funding ends in 31 days as of this recording

their target is $8 ,000 they've got 2 ,081 backers

currently So there's been a lot of a lot of people

back in this thing and if you go to the campaign

page which will be linked in the show notes there's

actually a video that they have on here that

shows off stuff and they show off like the stages

of development in this and what it's gonna look

like obviously we see the product pictures but

we see also the design parts of it and things

like that it's super cool Yeah, it'd be interesting.

I mean I could never see you spending an obscene

amount of money on Yeah, one toy. Yeah for those

that you know want to be in the know here. This

is five hundred and seventy -five dollars for

Unicron and Honestly for what it is that's not

a bad price because the snake mountain playset

that I mentioned that was six hundred bucks So

I mean this is very large scale thing. This is

not something that Hasbro, Hasbro Pulse, HasLab,

whatever. This is not something they can go to.

Walmart and say, Hey, you want to put this on

your shelves? Kind of a thing. It's, it's almost

like they're, they're doing like DLC in a sense.

Like they're, they're purposely like, Oh, let's

do a Kickstarter for something that clearly we

have a prototype for. You know, it's it's like

we're not gonna mass produce it. We just spent

all this money and molding and development Because

we're gonna really mass release it afterward

Yeah, I don't know but either way like And this

could just be the poor person in me talking or

this could be just the the lack of nostalgia

I Don't Care to spend $600 like honestly like

anything over $100 is a bit ridiculous for any

of them It just you know hear me out I can buy

an electronic I can I can upgrade my entire computer

for the cost of this one figure right like It's

it's not even For something that's gonna sit

on a shelf and do absolutely nothing it you know

I'll download the picture and print it out and

put it on my wall, and it'll do the exact same

thing Yeah. I'm not saying that it's not cool,

but it's the same type of mentality. If I'm going

to have it sit on a shelf, I might as well just

print out a large version of the picture and

have it sit on my wall in that capacity and not

spend the $600. See, that's the thing. Not all

of us who are... Well, I'm six or seven months

away from being 40 years old as of this recording.

Not all of us have... Super disposable income.

I mean even those of us that have you know hard

-working Decent paying jobs You have bills you

have you know in your case you guys have kids

You know and all the all the money that comes

with you know taking care of children, you know,

I Don't mean to say taking you know what I'm

talking about You know all the money that goes

into supporting your children and you know getting

them clothes or feeding them or you know making

sure they have a decent education making sure

you're setting stuff aside for their colleague

not all of us are 40 50 year olds that are still

living in mom's basement that have you know gobs

and gobs of cash that they're just sitting on

um you know even you know even though i don't

work like a full -time job kind of a thing because

of my disabilities and all that it's like You

know, back in 2006, 2007, when I did, when I

was still working, when I was still able to work,

sure, I'll go on eBay and drop 110 bucks on 1984

Optimus Prime because I hadn't had the damn thing

in so long or whatever. I don't have that disposable

income anymore. You know? See, I've never had

the disposable income. I've just had to barter

things I already owned. Right. To make it happen.

and uh... in my view it is basically that they're

assuming i'm assuming that they're assuming which

makes us all asses uh... most of the family only

you and me uh... wait not uh... funny uh... that

they're assuming that most of the fans have this

kind of money to put on this thing Like you said

is it very cool absolutely like I said I Don't

know where in the heck. I would put the dang

thing because it's such a big space Consumption

kind of thing like oh, I mean I Don't know but

it is very cool. I do hope a few people can get

their hands on one Who knows? I think it's great

that they're doing it. I just don't think that

at almost $600 it's It'll be like the USS brag

or flag Bragg USS flag for GI Joe. Yeah, like

it'll be I mean it will be the bragging rights.

So You know, oh, I I have enough disposable income

I can throw it away and buy a $500 action figure

But I don't see that many people even the hardcore

ones really picking it up I mean, I see some

that are just like completionists that like up

the wazoo that they have to have it. I don't

see the general fan. I mean, let's put it this

way. If I could have afforded it, I would have

had Beast Wars Megatron Masterpiece. Right. But

again, he's like 325 bucks. And honestly, that's

half the bridge to my computer. So it's not.

Would I like to have it because it's mechatron

and I can do the voice absolutely Would I spend

that kind of money no, I mean I would trade my

optimist primal masterpiece for it in a heartbeat,

but right but yeah, I mean It's yes, it's just

disposable income I don't have Absolutely um...

so i've seen bumblebee we're not going to go

into a complete review of that uh... in this

episode maybe next time uh... but i have seen

it i enjoyed it more than any of the original

any of the previous five films uh... i think

they finally got robot on robot action battles

and all that stuff on cybertron they did that

but it almost looked like the war for cybertron

video game in live action form so saw that finally

uh... and i did i'd see that it wasn't that bad

to be honest is actually pretty good i mean i

like the story it was yeah It was, I don't know,

the transformations, the modes, the everything

was very true to like G1. And so, yeah. And I

noticed there's more, more design, more paint

apps, more, less robot bits. Like, yeah. Yeah.

And it's not even the kibble part. Like if you

look at Bayform or Optimus Prime, you can see

his insides. You look at this Optimus Prime or

even this Bumblebee, you can see a little bit

of the inner workings of the CGI of the robot,

but mainly it's, you know, his yellow coat, his

this, his that, whatever. But I did enjoy the

film. I am not currently watching any of the

current Transformers cartoon stuff. And point

on cyberverse. I think the first like eight episodes

or something and then I just totally forgot about

it I think it was around the time I got laid

off and then I was kind of like yeah, I don't

care Something that I find interesting though

is that They are doing a prequel comic to the

84 comic that I collected from Marvel Yes, they

are. Guido, no, just let me do it. Getting to

the comics, the August 2019 solicitations, Transformers

84, number zero. It's Simon Furman on writing,

Guido Guidi on art and colors. All new prequel

to the original 84, Transformers No. 1, celebrating

35 years of Transformers. More has gripped the

planet Cybertron, but even a deadlier threat

looms, an asteroid belt powerful enough to destroy

the metal world. Unless Autobot field commander

Optimus Prime and his heroic recruits can clear

a path for the planet. But what other motivations

does Prime have for this mission? And how does

it tie to a secret on Earth in the 11th century?

This is a $4 .99 book. As I said, it's coming

out. Is it a one -shot? No. It's an all -new

series. It's an all -new ongoing. It's celebrating

35 years of the brand. It's basically reuniting

Simon and Guido from Regeneration One. As far

as I know, it's an ongoing. Well, I was gonna

say they not only did they do they continue the

Marvel Comics run with the generation one from

issue 81 to 100 Because they ended with 80 like

way back in the 80s and early 90s and that was

it Left it kind of on a cliffhanger and then

they had generation to come out and that was

a 12 issue shot and It was a little different

to I mean it was Furman and they had somebody

else drawing it but it was a little bit different

but the The Marvel run kind of went all over

the place Back when it was out. I mean you had

spider -man and that you had you know various

other Comics that crossed over quite often But

you also had like I guess I don't get the appeal

of going back like Doing a prequel to something

that we already know the outcome to the whole

thing Yeah Guess it's like when it doesn't if

they're going to the 11th century It doesn't

make sense either because they make it sound

like they were dormant and Then there was like

a one -off comic where they were like Oh prime

and all of his crew woke up during the 11th century

during you know the nights of the roundtable

and Then we're deactivated again So just I don't

know it's kind of weird it might be a Hey, one

shot. I'm trying to see. I don't... I thought

I saw it was gonna be more. I really did. I thought

I saw that it was gonna... be... Maybe it is?

I thought it was a new series. The other solicitations

are not showing it to me, so... I'm not sure.

I don't know. For someone who didn't read Regeneration

1... I mean, either way, I'm kind of interested.

Yeah, yeah. Like, again, it's one of those things

where, hey, go back and... do a prequel or whatever

kind of thing. If it is a one -shot, great. If

it becomes more, sure, fine, cool. Also coming

in August, we've got Transformers Ghostbusters

number three of five, Eric Burnham, Dan Schoening

on writing and art, Ghosts of Cybertron part

three, the third or fifth anniversary meeting

between Transformers and Ghostbusters continues.

Ectotron came to Earth and found a situation

far more complicated than he was expecting, which

means Optimus Prime is going to need to be brought

into the picture. But until Optimus can arrive,

Ectotron takes the opportunity to join the Ghostbusters

on a case and observe the paranormal. And don't

forget about the ghost of Starscream. This is

a $3 .99 book. This is, as I said, three of five,

so this is a five -issue miniseries. Bullet points

on this. Prime gets slimed, featuring brand new

Autobot Ectotron and other crossover surprises.

Written and illustrated by long -time fan -favorite

Ghostbusters creative team Robert Burnham and

Dan Schoening, with Luis Antonio Delgado on colors.

It has five action -packed interconnecting covers

from series artist Dan Shoning, which I've seen

the full cover to that. It's so cool. So very,

very cool. So that's what's coming in August

for comics. In September, I'm really excited

for this. Transformers Galaxies number one. Now,

as everyone may or may not know, the IDW universe

that had been going on for the last 13 years

ended with Optimus Prime volume five. uh... and

they've rebooted the universe it's a whole bold

new era someone else is writing it there's other

artists that are on the main transformers ongoing

now this transformers galaxies is going to be

an anthology series it's gonna kind of tie into

the main ongoing but from what i understand you

can read this without having to read the main

ongoing uh... is written by tyler blisinski and

sorry if i killed your last name there Tyler.

Livio Remindelli is on art. Cybertron, a planet

of vast beauty and extraordinary cities, wasn't

always so perfect. After the war, against the

three -fold spark, Cybertron was decimated and

new bots, the Constructicons, emerged to help

rebuild it, grander and more amazing than ever

before. But where are these bots now? Why have

they been erased from Cybertron's history and

what are they planning to do about it? Find out

in Constructicons Rising Part 1. This is a 399

book, 32 pages. I'm really excited about this

because I don't remember the last time Constructicon

starred in anything. I know they had certain

roles in the IDW universe that I said that it

ended, but putting the spotlight on them I'm

really going to enjoy. They were more important

in the Dreamwave comics. That was the last time

they actually were like something. Yep. So I'm

very excited about that continuing on the Transformers

Ghostbusters number four of five is coming out

in September as well 399 book The Ghostbusters

and their Autobot allies search the greater New

York City area for the missing Ghost of Starscream

and discover something much worse has been drawn

to Earth. Can our heroes overcome this evil ectoplasmic

entity before it utterly annihilates everything

in order to achieve its ends? Find out in the

penultimate chapter of this team -up for the

ages. and then Ghostbusters 5 and then Galaxies

2 for October Transformers Ghostbusters number

five Ghost of Cybertron part five out of the

frying pan and into the fire Starscream isn't

the only ghostly Decepticon in the universe or

on earth Megatron has manifested and he's hungry

for vengeance and he's not particular about what

he has to destroy to get it Autobots Decepticons

and the boys in gray to the 35th anniversary

celebration of Transformers and Ghostbusters

ends here 399 book for that Transformers galaxy

number two same creative team as earlier Constructicons

rising part two the Constructicons are training

They know their time is coming. They're almost

ready to stand at their once glorious height

They just need a sign and some energon. When

a mysterious benefactor arrives promising to

provide both, how can the constructicons resist?

Very, very cool. I wasn't sure where or what

was going to happen after IDW ended the current

universe with what they were doing with John

Barber writing Optimus Prime and James Roberts

writing lost light at the time and I have yet

to read The The new ongoing I'm waiting for the

trade on that to do so Again much like Unicron

I Hear that it is a very mixed bag some people

say it's not that great some people say it's

gonna take time to get used to because again

They ended their first universe and they're beginning

a whole new one so it's going to take time for

the story to develop it's going to take time

for them to get the new readers in it's not just

us that are holdovers from the previous universe

so that's what's going on in transformers comics

from now until october there are other things

that are coming out as well but i didn't I wanted

to focus on Transformers Ghostbusters and Transformers

Galaxies. Obviously, 84, number zero as well.

So this podcast is 11 years old now. It's crazy,

isn't it? Don't forget, Megatron, this is your

life. No, it is not. Yes, yes it is. I know we

haven't had a lot of episodes this year, folks,

but we've both just had a lot of life going on.

Devastators? Why are there Devastators? What

kind of a vegetable is that? A Devastator? Sorry.

What are you doing? I was looking at Devastator.

It was a joke I had five minutes ago, and I just

didn't have an opening to use it, so I was just

like, I'm gonna interrupt him doing it anyway.

You leave his tater tots alone. Ah, yes. Devastators.

Tots. Tater tots. Yes. Those are like minicons.

Oh no! I can never eat tater tots again, you

jackass. It's tiny mini -con, potatoes. Ew. It's

throttle potatoes. Boil a mashem stick in a stew.

Stop it. Yeah, so... I'm Tartar's mechatron.

Oh, waspinator. So we've both had life happening

to us. You have moved from Michigan to Colorado

the entire family I had brain surgery in May

of this year, so Yay, I'm not going to die Anyone

looks up the reason why Tim Conway passed away.

That's essentially what I had Basically he died

of water on the brain mine was not water on the

brain it was we all have Fluid on our brains,

but I guess over the years I've had a buildup

of excess fluid and unless they drained it They

the doctors basically said unless we do something

right now like tomorrow at the time Back in May.

They're like, you know, your brain is basically

pushing against your skull. That's why you're

having I was having such debilitating headaches

like I Couldn't even sit here and write or record

a podcast like there was one I've mentioned this

in some other podcast that we did There was one

of my daily blog posts when I was still doing

it. I basically had to find a way to wrap it

up really quickly, publish it, and basically

go to bed and turn all the lights off because

I just could not handle it. But since the surgery,

I'm doing much better. Very few, if any, headaches

at all. It's just the rest of my body that's

in disrepair. My back, my neck, my knees. I need

$150 ,000 and I won't settle out of court for

20 bucks. So, yeah. And honestly, outside of

what I just talked about with the comics, certain

comics that they're doing, I don't see anything

currently in the Transformers franchise that's

for me. I can see that. I'm personally not involved

anymore, and that's kind of why we haven't done

this, in addition to the fact of life. But it's

also like I just can't afford any of it so it

just doesn't and plus I pretty much before I

moved I pretty much went on a massive purge and

Very little survived. I actually don't even have

a Megatron figure anymore, but that's been like

a while it's it's kind of sacrilegious there,

but Yeah, I've At some point I had to Be like

so long Megatron because the intent was to eventually

get Beast Wars Megatron masterpiece. Yeah screen

accurate. Yeah, but then I found out how much

it was and I was like barf nope And and so I'm

like, I'll just stick with my screenshots Because

honestly, I'm like within weeks of updating my

computer and so I'm salivating at getting it

all up to date. There you go. I mean, do we still

love Transformers? Absolutely. We do. It's not

that we don't. Yeah, but not even that. Like

I said, I don't know how... I know you're a Dreamwave

guy. I can set you on a path. I like Marvel too

though. right and I understand that but IDW has

some of if not the best current because obviously

they have the license for the for the brand but

like the stories that are told in the IDW books

the main ongoings are really really fun and cool

and interesting I think at least with this new

thing that's coming with the Transformers galaxies

Just check it out. I'll have it on comicsology

anyway, so it's not like you know whatever, but

it's one of those things where it's Like the

comics I'm still interested in with IDW You know

I still like like we said earlier. I like seeing

the things like Unicron and Masterpiece Pictures

and things like that, I have zero desire to own

them. I'm not that interested in Cyberverse because

it's not aimed at me. I think I watched one of

the Hasbro YouTube videos that was like 10 minutes

long and it's a good cartoon. It's just not for

us. It's for, you know, not that you specifically

are going to do this, but You know, it's for

you to show Ian and Nolan at some point. That's

basically Cyberverse is what G1 was for us. At

least that's the way I think of it. But, you

know, if we have a topic, if we have something

we're going to talk about, we will. But after

11 years, not saying the show has run its course.

It's not my show to make this decision, but we're

never going to end this show. We'll have topics.

We'll have things to talk about. But when we

want to talk about it on our own, like right

now, podcasting for me is so, so like I'm lucky

I have the pullback going like because not just

because of my brain surgery, but because of my

other bodily issues that I have like my knees

and my this and my that like Sitting here for

any length of time doing anything not just recording

Podcasting isn't just sit down and record. I

have to like if I'm doing comics. I have to read

the comic I have to take notes after this after

that and It takes me Generally a trade paperback

or a collected edition is five issues It can

take me anywhere from one to three hours to read

that After that time. It's like okay. I gotta

go lay down cuz my knee is killing me kind of

a thing We're getting old here folks at least

I am Yeah, I'm getting there a little bit But

yeah, it's just I don't know I'm I'm getting

to that point where I'm kind of like do I really

care to carry on certain shows anymore? It's

yeah, I mean I still enjoy what I enjoy of it,

but And of course the voice, yes I use it quite

frequently now when I read books to my children

and I don't give them a choice because The voice

will come out and it will not be silence Yes

See that's the thing like When you first started

this you were I think aiming at a weekly show.

At one point or another, you ended up having

it be every other week. For the longest time,

we had it as every other week and for a few moments

in the middle there, we had it as weekly again.

And honestly, Because like I mentioned to you

off -air I went to look at TFW2005 .com for some

of the the Unicron images from San Diego Comic

Con I eventually had to go to the Transformers

official Facebook page to find the images that

we looked at because I'm sorry, but TFW2005 .com

is nothing but page sponsors and ads and buy

toys here, buy this here Which people will be

happy to see I've completely removed all of it

from Geekast Radio. Yes, yes you have. Because

one, there really wasn't anything coming out

of it at all. And so it was a complete waste

of space and rather than steal real estate from

people and plus... With all of the privacy laws

and all of the things with people getting their

information tracked from various things whether

it's ads whether it's you know Just things in

general I was like, you know, I'm not okay with

it. And so You know we get the advertising Through

people listening to the shows themselves The

website's gonna be clean as long as I can handle

it because essentially the ads in the podcast

pay for the website to stay up and So that's

that's kind of the the way I see it is once it's

not doing that anymore the And I'll have to think

something else up, but thankfully it's not that

expensive to upkeep But yeah, it's it's Just

yeah, I just I can't see doing their their whole

method plus I believe their sites run off of

like me bulletin Which is ancient It's yeah,

they use I mean now you can do social log on

their site, but Their site for a while they're

used Because they use vBulletin for the Their

message boards and I'm pretty sure all of its

like a CMS that's integrated. It's not WordPress.

It's something else so I mean, look, did I love

TFW2005 .com for news back in the day? Absolutely,

yes. But trying to find a news article on there

without having to go to the second or third page?

Whatever, I'm not trying to bag on the website.

I'm just saying. I will. Bag, bag, bag. Put a

bag over its head, Jim. So, you know, it is what

it is. So when we have something to talk about

that's Transformers -related outside of me and

Ryan doing comic reviews or whatever, we'll come

on and we'll talk about it. This podcast has

been going on for 11 years. No one I don't think...

And even if I'm not on it, someone will be present.

Yeah, and like, the show's been going for 11

years. Fairly consistently strong. I'm pretty

certain the audience isn't gonna mo - like, the

last episode we had was in March of this year,

before now. So, you know, that's - But the downloads

are still, like, impressive. Exactly. Thank you

so much, folks, for listening to our past content.

Yes. This is what I keep telling Steve about,

hey, if we ever have a point where something

happens in our lives, we can just promote all

of the past content, because that way we'll get

more and more downloads still. No, granted the

only stuff in it that's evergreen content Is

when we did the countdowns Or like the before

we were gonna end it for b2, yep But yeah, I

don't know I just find that Even five years ago

Five years ago. There was more transformer stuff

out there for me to latch on to or get connected

with and now there's Like I said like you keep

saying outside of the comics. There's essentially

nothing for me to latch on to currently pretty

much It is what it is, but the brand show you

know soldier on So I think that about rounds

it up. Yes, yes it does. We ended on such a down

It's a roller coaster. Exactly. Where's Astrotrain

when you need him? I know, right? Skylinks! Oh

god, don't. Oh, that's horrible. Anyways. Thank

you as always for listening to all things transformers

if you'd like to get in contact with us or leave

feedback for the show You can always do so in

multiple ways. One of them is visiting geek cast

radio .com Be sure to comment on the cut on the

the episodes on there, please Of course, there's

lots of place to follow us you can follow me

on Twitter at SCP 21 and yourself sir at TFG

and Mike So Until next time, we hope you enjoyed

the Transformers talk today as we love to talk

Transformers. Join us next time for our next

all spark worthy discussion here on all things

Transformers. Yes. For a time, we considered

sparing the wretched little planet Cybertron.

But now, we shall witness its dismemberment.