17 Years of All Things Transformers & SDCC Recap: Yolopark, Skybound, Hasbro Exclusives!

Sentinel Online. Now loading all things Transformers.

All Things Transformers. I'm your host, Steve

Megatron, and joining me on this adventure into

the Transformers fandom is TFG1 Mike. Man, we

really should have come up with something for

this, other than the fact that this is the 449th

episode, because this should have really been

the 450th. Oh, wait, that's right. We are doing

something for the 450th. No, we're doing something

to the 500th. That's what the plan was, to get

to the 500th. The road to 500. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

But when I looked at the script, I was like,

449. Oh, shnikes. Yikes. But yeah. Oh, boy. 17

years. That's crazy. That's my longest running

podcast. Yep. We old. It old. yeah it old it

all killed it twice too or three times three

times yeah you've tried and then it goes away

for like a technical like short stint yeah yeah

just because the podcast goes away doesn't mean

it's truly dead the only way it's truly dead

is if you never upload ever again and you specifically

say hey look this show is ending uh But if you

just say, hey, yeah, we got blah, blah, blah.

And then it goes away and then it comes back

like the indestructible spark of Starscream.

Then, you know. I mean, you are Megatron. The

podcast is Starscream. It's like a redheaded

stepchild. Yes, it does keep returning. Yes,

of course. And it's funny. Uh -huh. Absolutely.

But, yeah, it's been quite amazing, honestly.

Yep. And 17 years, who would have thought? Exactly.

Who would have thought? Because, wow. Okay, so

I think what's more interesting isn't the fact

that you've had the show go on for 17 years.

The fact that you're almost at 500 episodes in

17 years. like yeah i i really wasn't trying

to push the envelope too much on that like i

that's my fault well i'm a machine the well the

episode count thing never mattered to me it was

it was always quality over quantity and i was

watching all these other transformers podcasts

pumping out episode week after week after week

sometimes twice a week and i was like is it really

necessary Is there really enough to discuss every

week? Like, yes. I mean, if you're doing like

a deep dive on something or like a commentary

or doing, you know, speculative speculative content

or interviews. Yes. If you're covering news,

not so much because there's a lot of rumors and

a lot of just nonsense that doesn't need to be

reported on until there's like cold hard facts.

um so i mean i i've always i've always kind of

pushed more on the side of i would rather just

put out good content covering transformers rather

than just content yeah and and you say that and

i'm gonna preface this to everyone who heard

you just say that by saying that we know that

not every single transformers podcast past and

present puts out content just to put it out there

because i've listened to several most current

podcasts for transformers and there are some

out there that do things in a way where it's

like oh they put this in this bucket or that

in that bucket or whatever and it's still good

content they still have multiple episodes i would

most compare us today to the transmissions podcast

transmissions with Big C Charles, with Daryl

the Cybertronian Beast, Jeremy aka Yakko, Dr.

Pants, and a bunch of other people that do stuff

over there. They have their traditional regular

transmissions episodes that are on a certain...

You want to talk about numbers and confusion?

they have their regular transmissions numbered

episodes that are on a certain number and then

they have their alt mode episode numbers that

are on a separate number trajectory that's confusing

as hell sometimes i'm okay with it because i

understand it but their alt mode episodes are

like their comic reviews and in their comic review

episodes they'll do like here's the comic news

here's the comic review and then after the comic

review they'll do here's the media news so they'll

kind of separate it out where like if you go

to tfw2005 .com and you look at that news section

at the top where it's like uh the they're they're

um menu bar under news says generations rid movies

comics etc where you can separate it out that's

kind of what transmissions does with their episodes

kind of thing and sometimes they'll do special

things and whatever so i understand something

like that but the general statement that you

said about just to do it to do it absolutely

no like There's a difference in us doing a news

episode and having, let's say, eight stories.

Four and four or whatever. Like if you pick four

and I pick four. That's fine. That would be a

normal All Things Transformers episode. We sometimes

may have a topic. We sometimes may not have a

topic. It just might be the news. And here's

the news. Here you go. This is what we're interested

in. This is what we wanted to talk about. Bob's

your uncle. Or Optimus is your uncle. whoever

whatever and there you go or we might have a

topic in whatever episode it is and we might

cut down on the news instead of having eight

stories we might have six or we might have four

so we cut back on the news side of it and we

add more time to the actual topic of it or you

know there's something i want to do this year

going into i mean we're already at friggin august

8th 2008 August 8th, 2025, 17 years. August of

2025. I feel like July was seven years and seven

months, not seven months in one year. July was

long as hell for me in real life, but that's

a whole other kettle of bots and cons and whatever.

We're at 17 years for this podcast and we are

just over halfway through 2025. At some point,

I don't know. You and I have to talk about this

and we have to figure it out and we have to obviously

promote and whatever. I want to bring back ATTF

Origins at some point and it would most likely

be like a monthly special. like a once a month

episode thing where i would get somebody who's

a transformers fan and they would answer the

30 questions about their transformers fandom

so that's a spotlight episode thing that would

only happen once a month and you'd have 12 episodes

a month if we did it monthly every year kind

of thing uh like yeah pod podcasts can do all

kinds of crazy stuff and i said to you the other

day when we finished doing the altered geek episode

thing and i'm not going to bring too much about

up about this on air but i had said to you about

certain ideas and certain whatever you go you're

like yeah but every time i feel like i mention

them on air it's like we never do them probably

that's why you got to remember to mention them

to me off air to whomever to whatever or to like

we got to remember to i know we old but we got

to work on the memory thing but um Yeah, it's

just it's just one of those things. And yeah,

you're right. Like your goal was and I know you've

never been it. I'm more the numbers guy when

it comes to. And it was never about getting to

a certain number. It never really is. It's just.

When you have so many ideas and so many things

that you feel like you want to do. or you feel

like you want to get out in one like when i was

doing tfg1 podcast i knew once i laid that out

i knew it was only going to be 24 episodes because

the way i laid it out and the fact that the cartoon

only has 98 episodes like you can only do so

much which is why that podcast has like six or

seven or however many supplemental episodes which

i knew by like season three i'm like okay i'm

gonna feel trapped in this so we got to figure

something else out which obviously then led you

and i on the track of creating the whole for

over 4 000 audio episodes that we have here at

the geek cast radio network 17 16 and a half

17 years later okay i'll shut up now what do

you want to talk about well it's just it's it's

kind of funny that you know it's been this whole

ride and of course it's it was funny because

i was editing the doc and i was like 447 i'm

like didn't we just do that and i looked at rss

and i was like oh we're we're doing 449 tonight

and i forgot to change that but it's kind of

cool because this also is going to coincide with

my book release yep absolutely so why don't you

talk about that yeah so on obviously august 8th

my book altered audio podcasting demystified

comes out and it's uh basically a journey on

podcasting and kind of shows some of my information

as well as the information of the book itself

and kind of a rundown of different platforms

different options different things you know that

i've had people ask me uh over the years and

some of it is just kind of culminated into this

one book as kind of a DIY guide making it easy

kind of putting everything out there in this

pretty simple to use book and it's not it's not

like 400 pages thick like a for dummies book

it's it's only 140 pages and it's one of those

six by nine books so it's just kind of your standard,

very thin, easy enough to read. My oldest is

actually reading it. Cool. More or less. He took

my Amazon copy, my, my, uh, your copy. And he's

like, he commandeered it. I still have my Barnes

and Noble version, but, uh, but yeah, I may,

I may buy another one that's just for reading.

And then I keep one that's like, first edition

and closed you know and then they're all technically

first edition but when as i gather new information

and more stuff to add to it or change uh i may

come up with a second edition next year you know

just because i'm sure things will change between

now and then and i'll have more information to

put in there and um i'm stockpiling data yes

for it He is the Bob Ross slash Bob Vila of podcasters

when it comes to books right now, folks. You're

going to want to get altered audio, folks. So

it'll be on Amazon. It'll be digital. It'll be

on print paperback there. There'll be one on

Barnes and Noble dot com. You may notice that

there's two versions of the print of the book.

uh i in order to get wider distribution i went

with also ingram spark which apparently bookstores

libraries and things like that will not deal

with amazon oh yeah they they have this hardcore

thing because of however amazon handles like

publishers and books and things like that it's

very much a print on demand thing yeah yeah they

want a specific legitimate regular publisher

not just amazon yep yeah so i mean and i have

it through barnes and noble as well through like

the self -publishing uh however ingram spark

is the one it's a distributor that does self

-publishing and So therefore, they're more likely

to purchase from that over buying it from the

other two. However, in doing so, also duplicated

so that there are two versions of the same book

on Amazon and on Barnes & Noble. So one is $15

.99 and one is $17 .99. In the $15 .99, I will

let you know, I get more of a cut. The $17 .99

version is the exact same book. But I see a lot

less of the commission or my kickback for the

book. So all of the books, like Easy Access,

it's in my link tree in my Twitter profile. There's

a spot that it says, you know, my book or whatever,

and it scours and sources. the uh the book to

the various locations and automatically pulls

up you know the different options in it and the

ingram spark version comes up under mass published

yep uh whereas the other will come up under amazon

and will come up you know with the kindle version

and the print version and then the barnes and

noble has its own so that that is how you can

differentiate them uh that seems so control oh

god it's confusing it really is but it the thing

is is if i just done it on ingram spark it publishes

every everywhere anyway yeah but there's again

there's not a learning curve yeah yeah it's a

learning curve i didn't know that and at first

i'd only public i plan to do barnes and noble

and audible or not audible uh uh amazon yeah

and then i was like oh well if I did it this

way, then I get the option of bookstores and

of libraries and things like that. So learning

curve, something I know for the next time, but

yeah. So we're here to talk about transformers.

Are we really? I couldn't tell. Yeah. We're fresh

off SDCC. We covered a tiny portion of this over

on Altered Geek. Thread's 12th or 13th anniversary.

Yes. Yep. Right around the same time. Yep. Yep.

So without further ado, let's get into some Transformers

news. Absolutely. You got the first story, Mr.

Beast Wars. Yolo Park. so they they have for

yellow park they have the original transformers

2007 film characters ironhide blackout and uh

optimus prime uh in their robot modes uh they

have the the prototypes on there they also have

dark of the moon megatron and revenge of the

fallen megatron they have bumblebee movie optimus

prime and cybertronian bumblebee uh They also

have the Last Night Drift. They have IDW Optimus

Prime. They have the Mini Wave 2. Really quick,

just to clarify, folks, all of the ones he just

mentioned before the Mini Wave is under the AMK

Pro Series, which is the more expensive versions

of the Yolo Park figures. Because I find it absolutely

hilarious that they actually distinction the

two series. When you get down to your favorites,

they specifically say the more affordable line.

That is true. So, yeah, they have those, and

then they get into the AMK Mini Wave 2 and 3

and 4, which has Grimlock, Optimus Primal, IDW,

Nickel, and Bumblebee and Concept Megatron. I

find it funny that they have Optimus Primal in

the Mini Wave. yeah that's hilarious uh so i

didn't realize he was in here twice but it's

kind of funny regardless uh and then of course

we get the amk pro rise of the beasts rc and

then amk pro g1 mega or bumblebee and then we

get to the you know then they have the amk pro

transformers one optimus prime and megatron final

forms and then we get the amk beast wars optimus

primal dino bot black arachnia and megatron yeah

which is the ones i care about obviously obviously

uh i think they look really good what's funny

is they're basically the masterpiece yep Without

like they don't have the posable, you know, thumbs

and all of that stuff. Correct me if I'm wrong.

They don't move, do they? Or they have limited

articulation. I would have to look up a YouTube

video for these. I don't remember what AMK Pro

does. So Optimus Primal, it looks like his head

moves. It looks like his arms, like his, his

elbows, his shoulders. Yep. And then they've

got a wrist mount that twists and then you get,

you know, some of the leg and knee. Yeah. So

they're essentially, they have pose ability.

They're basically that they move, but they don't

like, they're not like an action pose. Yeah,

it's action pose. It's not like what I'll talk

about later with the MDLX Rodimus where that

thing is... I mean, he's got more stuff in his

joints than God knows what. But yeah, so it's

more of a... It's not a completely static...

Like, Dinobot isn't just standing there holding

his hand up. I'm sure his fingers probably move

maybe. Same thing with... like you said with

optimus i'm sure his arms you know move it's

just that they don't transform they're basically

model figure type things i just wish we were

at the stage at sdcc that yolo park was at the

stage of painting for this because this is san

diego comic -con i get it these are great prototypes

i i just i want to see these in color because

they're going to look so much And I get it. I

understand. This is the stage that they're at

of working on these, and they want something

to show off, to get us excited. And I'm excited

for them, but I don't know. I don't know. I think

we could see more with the color than just the

gray prototype. Yeah. I mean, I'm excited either

way because... even though that I am highly unlikely

of getting these. Because, I mean, I have a Masterpiece

Optimus Primal. I have a Masterpiece Megatron.

I have the War for Cybertron Dinobot. I don't

have Black Rackney anymore. All of those transform,

and you have to transform them back and forth.

And I get that's the whole point of Transformers,

folks. I understand that. But sometimes you just

want the character. And you just want the character

to stand there. Yeah. So, I mean, the only incentive

I would have for like Optimus Primal, for instance,

or Megatron would be turning their masterpiece

into beast form and then having these next to

them. Yeah. Or like having them on my desk at

work or, you know, something. Yeah. Yeah. Yep.

So, so yeah, those are, those are, uh, definitely

the highlight for me there. Yep. Yep. And then

we have the brand panel recap from San Diego

comic -con the, we had the, uh, fan 2026 activate

your alt mode fan vote. Apparently on August

12th is when this is happening. Round one will

be character. Round two will be alt mode category.

Round three will be alt mode type. So there's

that. We are getting a Void Rivals, Jetfire,

and Derek along with Salila. So I've mentioned

this to you before, and this will come up later

when I talk about the comics news from San Diego

Comic -Con. void rivals is one third of the energon

universe comic series out there it personally

for me it is the best new space series original

space series in comics at least from the stuff

that i read uh which i don't read a lot you know

it's like whatever When Jesse and I started reading

the Energon universe, we were like, oh, Transformers,

and oh, Void Rivals, and oh, G .I. Joe. Okay,

cool. We were mainly there for Transformers because,

hello, Matrix Prime, TF2, and Mike were Transformers

people. And Jesse's podcast, Another Comic Review,

is where I've been doing that. You know, we've

been doing that show for two years. The Energon

Universe has been around at Skybound under Image

Comics for two years now. So Void Rivals, Jetfire,

along with Derek and Celilo. They showed that

off. They've got that going. That thing's $115.

A lot of money. Hearts of Steel 2 -pack. This

is Optimus and Starscream and a bunch of others,

I think. uh the armada nemesis prime and air

defense minicons uh the hot wheels twin mill

and bone shaker okay uh this is the transformers

age of the primes deluxe scale we have sure shot

hey i remember sure isn't he from armada an old

sure shot or maybe he's not no that's hot shot

no sure shot no hot shots from armada sure shots

from g1 okay yeah uh blast off last off looks

great junkie on jalopy i liked it and i think

other people have said this recently i like that

they're actually giving the junkie on figures

personalities i don't mind that at all I think

that's cool more than just saying, here, you're

Junkion number three, or you're Junkion number

7 ,345, that nothing really matters about you.

So I think that's cool. Well, I just thought

I'd give her a look, Boss Bot. Oh, boy. Deluxe

Quickstrike. He just... Every time I see him,

I was like, I can hear... Oh, what is it? uh

colin murdoch i believe is the voice actor that

did his voice i just i just hear that that country

voice deluxe quintus prime this what the hell

kind of oh i don't know i like the i like the

quick strike because he's actually accurate to

accurate to the show and what's funny is uh trans

art toys came out with one And he's shiny and

he's cool looking and everything. I mean, there's

not much you can do to one up it. I mean, the

legs are articulated and stuff. Yeah. This takes

the original quick strike toy and one ups it,

obviously, because they make them a deluxe instead

of a basic. Right. And then they got rid of the

translucent and then made them, you know, fully

detailed, which I'm surprised that the paint

decor on him looks really good. Yeah. And then

they've got the. uh the pegs on like his claws

and on his uh his underside of his legs yep that

allow him to hold on to you know something a

weapon whatever and uh i would be tempted for

this one uh because i i want to get rid of scorpion

because i was like i hate that guy i like quick

strike yeah One, he'll be cheaper than the Trans

Art Toys one, and I've heard there were quality

control issues with the Trans Art Toys one, and

this one, honestly, for my needs, he's perfectly

fine. I would love to see some Trans Metals,

though, like Trans Metal Tarantulas and Trans

Metal Megatron and Depth Charge and things like

that, but time will tell. Yeah, time will tell.

Plus, again, we're at the... We're over the halfway

point of 2025. We're heading into 2026. 2026,

as you know, and as the audience knows, obviously.

30th anniversary or 40th. No, 30th anniversary

or 40th. Jesus, Mike, you're aging yourself up

there. 30th anniversary of Beast Wars. I highly

doubt the company is going to ignore the 30th

anniversary. of beast wars the cartoon the toy

line that basically saved the brand 30 years

ago so i'm sure they're going to do something

i don't know what because hello i don't work

for them but yeah all right the voyagers for

2026 we have brawl it's good for the combaticon

character we have rec gar Gar is a Voyager. I

hear a combination of Eric Idle and Will Weird

Al coming out of his face, but more Eric Idle

since it's Generation 1. Amalgamous? For half

a second I thought that was going to be the Sharkticon,

but that's not. The hell? Oh, I see what they

did there. And then we get into the leader scale.

Razorclaw! Really? razor claw as the lead oh

because of the the um um what what's the stupid

what's the name the predaking what's the name

of the damn oh god this is what i'm thinking

it is right it's razor claw from the From Predaking,

right? Or is this a different razor? No, this

is a different razor claw. Okay. This is the

Unicron -infused one from the Transformers Unlimited

comic line. Oh, okay. And then Leader Big Convoy.

That's a big elephant. Yeah, it is. Cool. The

big woolly mammoth right there. That's Ultra

Magnus in beast form. No. I mean, it basically

is. Yeah, it is. It is. That's, that's great.

And then we get the 2026 commander scale. Oh

my God. On slot. On slot. As a commander. Render

only subject to change. Wait. Okay. Oh, this

is I'm like deluxe scale. We just did this studio

series. So we get into studio series, deluxe

scale. TF1 Arachnid. I forgot she was in TF1,

but she is. Barricade from the last night. Really?

I guess we already had him from the original

2007. All I can think of is that original 2007

debut that he had. 86 Windcharger. Very cool.

He looks good. He does. For what he is? Yeah,

absolutely. He almost looks like the Inspector

Gadget car if you repainted him. Silver. Go,

go, Gadget Charger. Uh -huh. Go, Gadget, go.

All right, Studio Series Voyager scale. TF1 Alpha

Trion. Eh, okay. That looks all right. I don't

know about these TF, like... we talked about

the movie we did a whole episode about the movie

i forget off the top of my head which episode

number of this podcast that that episode is but

i don't know about some of these in the movie

the designs looked great in the movie but as

toys i don't know anyone listening are is anyone

collecting the tf1 stuff because i don't know

if i even would I know you're not, obviously,

but it's not your thing. Oh, there we go. There

he is. Good old 86 Voyager Thundercracker. Here

we go. This should be the ultimate final form

for Thundercracker, at least until we get to

the 50th anniversary of this movie. But Transformers,

the movie Thundercracker. Man, he looks great.

I mean, there's not much to improve there. No,

but... I mean, it's still a Starscream. It's

still a Starscream. Repainted. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

He's Scourge. He's Scourge. Okay, so this is

the last night. This is Leader Class 2026 for

Studio Series. It is Leader Nemesis Prime. Honestly,

it's probably the best looking truck mode. One

of the best looking truck modes. And if I did

from that movie line. Yeah. And if I did ever

purchase one of these things, I would probably

only keep him in truck mode. Of course, in my

case, probably Hasbro would be like, yeah, truck

mode. You're going to have to work for that because

we're going to package him in robot mode. You

jerk. All right. More than likely. Yeah, Studio

Series, Titans. Okay, can we talk about this?

We got it. Leader class, commander class, Titan

class. Like, how large are we going to end up

going with this? Oh, God. Size of the arc. Oh,

yeah, I know. And then so Prime can ride on him.

No, I know. That one. hey yeah because last night

oh no wait where okay so yeah the the titan class

2026 titan class uh tf4 grimlock the dinosaur

mode is that's so sad okay like i know that if

you look at generation one grimlock his robot

mode okay it's okay but really what we're there

for is the dinosaur mode like the robot modes

aren't really anything you're right home about

what we're there for is the dinosaurs that's

the whole point but you want your robots to have

cool looking robot modes and i look at this and

i'm like giant robot tiny head big staff with

a mace Look over to the right. Holy crap, look

at his teeth. That's a giant T -Rex. I'm running

for my life. Probably couldn't outrun that thing,

but yeah. So that was the Transformers brand

panel recap at San Diego Comic -Con. Any final

thoughts on that? Anything you, I know, I know

we talked to, I know you talked about the quick

strike, but anything else you like from that

stuff that we just saw there? I mean, I think

it's neat, uh, about jet fire. Uh, I like, I

think it's cool that hot wheels and transformers

are doing a lot of collaboration. Yup. Uh, my

kids actually found me a Optimus prime hot wheel.

Nice. Very cool. I've never seen one. I've been

looking for months and I refuse to spend $15

on eBay. So yeah, they found me one for like

two bucks at a store. And, uh, I mean, I'm still

looking for another one so I can open one, but

this one's in the box. Um, I like sure shot.

He's kind of cool. Uh, I obviously am very intrigued

with quick strike. Yep. uh i like i like the

combaticons for what they are yeah that blast

off looks great i also like uh brawl yep um razor

claw is cool but i mean i would just get tiger

hawk if i'm gonna go that route yeah and big

convoy is cool but i i never really got into

beast wars neo yeah so yeah as far as the others

and then wind chargers pretty neat because i

all i can see is inspector gadget car yeah that's

literally all i can see and then i'm like oh

so if you paint the body silver and then you

paint the front grill black and then you paint

like you know the robot mode more of the either

the red or the or grays or black you know and

then have the body of him silver and you know

there's a lot you could do with it but i i'm

like i just see inspector gadget car yeah and

then thundercracker's cool but yeah yeah i was

hoping we would see skywarp too i really wanted

to see like i like like i okay star scream is

not my favorite he never has been he never will

be thundercracker is okay i like thundercracker

i like i like uh john stevenson's voice for thundercracker

i forget who voices skywarp off the top of my

head but i like skywarp's voice in the generation

one cartoon and black and purple is just my thing

it always has been it always will be so i really

wanted to see a tftm studio series 80 ss86 uh

skywarp as well but it is what it is uh yeah

so but yeah all right getting into the comic

stuff we got a couple of things here so we got

the november solicitations for transformers 26

and void rivals 25 so we got uh kirkman who is

joined by new series artists andre bresson uh

and patrico del pesce to kick off the brand new

energon universe epic like nothing you've ever

experienced and the sacred ring will never be

the same so uh basically this is continuing the

road or the the current um in issue 25 they're

gonna start the quintesson war so this actually

kicks it off issue 20 25 kicks it off but issue

26 what the hell you're in sleep mode and nobody's

saying hey G what the hell phone so it's funny

that they actually show you in the images on

TFW 2005 they show you the cover for 25 first

which is the quintesson cover there with uh derek

and celila and the quintesson head and with the

tentacles and then they show you the optimus

cover next which is the 26 cover and then the

shred head cover our uh alita one or rc i don't

know i think that's rc actually uh and then the

devastator with uh megatron there's an optimus

thing and yeah um it's just it's gonna be getting

so good the end run for daniel warren johnson's

arc is is rapidly closing up we just reviewed

issue 21 or issue 22 i think i forget which one

off top my head so he's got two more issues to

close out his his run uh and then we do get the

announcement um for for skybound's all -out war

in the energon universe this is the character

designs and cover artwork uh robert kirkman and

artist dan mora will take over on transformers

with issue 25 yada yada yada now i will say even

though i'm not we're not going to talk too much

about the two videos that are linked here but

daniel warren johnson's video is basically him

reflecting on his time on writing and drawing

transformers and the robert kirkman this is the

first video i'd seen or tracked down or actually

sought out to actually hear robert kirkman talking

about working on specifically void rivals because

that's where where he's currently working and

getting to in the future with issue 25 work on

the transformers i really liked the video i really

liked hearing what the guy had to say and what

they've got coming up and i'm very excited for

it because daniel warren johnson has a certain

style and it's not a bad style everybody has

a certain style but he has certain things that

he likes and certain things that like he did

that comic book series called do a power bomb

and it's a it's about wrestling it's it's a wrestling

thing and if you're not into wrestling you're

not gonna like that but Because that's part of

his background, he tried to incorporate that

a few times in the Transformers book. So he would

have some of the Transformers do wrestling moves

to each other. It was kind of funny, but it was

just like, okay, dude, we get it. But anyway,

if you're on this article with me here, let's

look at these designs, these upcoming designs.

So we got Arcee here, and she looks pretty good.

We got Optimus and Megatron. I love it. they

look very classic. Well, and then they, they

give them a slightly different look and well,

yeah, I mean, they're going to, yeah, I'm not

expecting, you know, exact. Uh, it kind of reminds

me of, uh, Josh's artwork in a sense. Bertram

or Perez? Uh, Bertram. Okay. Yeah. yeah more

so like the coloring and you know the rough lines

and yeah stuff like that uh but i find it interesting

that both prime and megatron get their arms back

well they kind of okay so you're not currently

reading it uh yet yet okay you can spoil it i

don't care i just want to make sure because i

don't want to eventually we're going to read

it and trade on this podcast So, Prime got his

arm shot off. Something happened. I forget off

the top of my head. But he got his right arm

shot off. He uses Megatron's arm as his fusion

cannon arm. Whatever. Anyway, so he has Megatron's

arm. But here's the thing. Megatron's arm is

infecting him. and prime has the matrix megatron's

arm is infecting the matrix which basically means

unless they remove it matrix no worky matrix

dead kind of thing and the crazy thing is and

i only found this out because apparently i missed

it completely i was again listen and i'm not

trying to promote for them but it's because i

listened to like six of their episodes in the

last week i was trying to play catch up on listening

to the transmissions podcast i think it was either

daryl or charles that pointed out you know when

they try to remove megatron's arm from prime

they shoot optimus prime everywhere except megatron's

arm like they basically destroy optimus and the

only thing that's not destroyed is the actual

thing that they're trying to remove from his

body and i was like huh that's interesting uh

but yeah no so yeah they they both get their

arms back uh because you know you got to return

to status quo we get jazz We get Soundwave. Soundwave

looks cool. Soundwave looks more... He's in the

current storyline, kind of, sort of, but this

design, at least the robot design, he looks...

I don't want to say thinner, but that's the only

word I can think. I don't know. He just doesn't

look as big as he usually does. We get Thundercracker,

Wheeljack, and then these are some of the covers.

For coming up. So, yeah. Very, very cool. Oh,

man. Oh, look at that wraparound. That wraparound's

amazing. Well, they did the Transformers the

movie thing with him. Yep. Oh, yeah. Yep. That

Void Rivals wraparound is so cool, too. But yeah,

so very, very awesome for the Energon universe

and the future going forward. And then the last

bit, not the last bit, but the next bit is non

-comic. It's kind of still comic stuff, but...

That, like I said, the Transformers, Void Rivals,

Autobot, Jetfire, Zertonian, Celina, Anagori,

and Derek. It's on Pulse, and I think it's...

I don't want to... Can I just click the Pulse

link and it not open a separate... Of course

it opened a separate tab, you bastard. It's a

hundred and... Oh, what? okay i hope that's not

uh oh boy i don't know what the conversion is

on that but i'm not in the uk it says it's 144

pounds or whatever that just matrix prime told

me it was 115 something 115 bucks or something

or other so i don't know it's jetfire and i told

him i said it's jetfire he's huge you expect

him to like you expect him to be anything less

and then he comes with two other other figures

he's 114 us okay yeah that's what i thought um

yeah i mean he's cool don't get me wrong he looks

very g1 ask oh absolutely that's well that's

the point because it's based off the void rivals

uh daniel warren johnson design uh here you go

and he's a he's an 11 inch tall figure Yes, he

is. That's why. Yeah. Do that. There you go.

Look there in the chat. That's one of the images

of him of all of them. If it sends. There it

goes. But yeah, so it's him with the two with

the two. zertonian agorian figures i like it

i think it's cool i think it's great that they

are doing figures from this comic line i think

that's very awesome but i kind of wish we could

get the derrick and salila by themselves for

like like 10 bucks for a two -pack like five

bucks each kind of thing because that's what

those figures at least at that size like i don't

know if i'm right on that price point or not

but uh one thing with this with this story here

about all the listings the one thing i wanted

to talk about is it's been years it's been decades

since i wanted anything lego and the only reason

why i want lego soundwave is to keep him in tape

deck mode because they added A sound brick. And

he makes sound. Oh, my God. I can't. Just it's

so cool. I watched somebody do a video of it

the other day. Maybe it was an original Lego

video. I don't remember. But like Legos nowadays

aren't like Legos when I was a kid. Like even

just looking at. Even just. Looking at something

like this. Finally exceeds the limit. Are you

kidding me? It's a it's a photo. You stupid.

Anyway. The image of where it's out on the table

in that post of where it's spread out in the

bucket like. That like I don't remember Legos

like that when I was a kid in the 80s. I just

I know. I mean, yeah, I. I remember making my

own of all the, all the G one transformers out

of Lego. Yep. And I made like with what I had,

I made, you know, the pieces so that they could

transform. Yep. And I made cassettes that could

transform. They turned into robots or animals

or whatever. And they fit inside. Like I had

a tape deck thing that opened. and swivel heads

and you know all that good stuff uh i made a

couple years ago i made a optimus prime and megatron

for my kids and figured out how to have like

the fusion cannon like everything like the thing

was posable like it was better than the stuff

i made as a kid but it's nowhere near the level

of what they're coming out with now yeah uh but

i mean it's it's crazy the the stuff that is

coming out because it's very cool And if you

look at the photos in this post with the sound

wave and just looking at it, just the robot mode

is cool. Don't get me wrong. It absolutely is

cool. And it is. But like we have a million different

sound waves in robot mode, and that's the same

robot mode we've had for the past 40 something

years. It's that tape deck mode for me that just

absolutely does it. There's one photo of it on

like a table. where it's just on a table or the

one where it's on the shelf with the books, like,

Oh, like, Oh my God, that would be so cool. That

would be so fun. There's one where, cause he

comes with ravage and laser beak. There's a product

shot of it. It looks so good. So absolutely good.

We talked about this, the, the masters. transformers

crossover didn't we we don't need to talk about

that again do we no okay good just or right past

that listing then because we don't talk about

that we talked about the megatron uh bumblebee

train and canon thing from uh whatever i like

those the what is it was transformers minor set

or whatever I like that. Oh, there's Braun. Braun

looks cool. Oh, Seaspray. Seaspray looks great.

This is the, I guess this is the reissue or the

whatever they're. Retro G1 Autobot Seaspray is

what it's called. Retro G1 Autobot Braun. They

look cool. They look great. They look cool. And

they're kind of like the old style mixed with

the modern retro. You know, they're neat. I've

seen I've seen gears. Yeah. And Bumblebee at

the store. Yeah, I was right. Derek and silly

come as a two pack separately from Jetfire to.

Because they're in a two -pack box with Jetfire's

artwork on the back of the... That's hilarious.

Oh, boy. But no, that sound wave. Oh, man. That

would just be so cool. All right. Another thing

I'm going to be gushing over. We're going to

go back to Yolo Park. Because, or technically...

MDLX? Yeah, A3U exclusive Transformers MDLX Lost

Light Rodimus Prime. Oh, this is not yellow part.

This is 3 -0. I still have the Nemesis Prime.

I still haven't gotten them out of the box yet.

But this thing. So the last episode when we talked

about this and I was like, where's his head?

I can't see his damn head. I can finally see

his head. Man, this is just... It's so good.

The only thing that would make this better is

if it was also... his car mode not that it would

not okay when i say that i don't mean i want

i'm not trying to turn into one of those transformers

fans oh but it doesn't transform it's not what

i'm saying what i'm saying is uh which company

was it there i think it's the blockies blockies

has uh a version of swoop where it's the pteranodon

that you can put together but it also has a version

of swoop that it's the robot It's the robot mode

version of Swoop. I wish I had an alt mode version

of this Rodimus too, because damn. Oh, man. I

might have to get... I know that's how I am with

Beast Megatron. Yeah, I know. He just looks so

damn good. Yeah, so there's that. And then the

final thing I had for news, I wanted to save

this for last. They did at San Diego Comic -Con

Hasbro interview, Age of the Prime, Studio Series,

Haslabs, and more. The... So... The TFW team

has had a chance to ask Evan Brooks, Evan and

Nate, questions about what's going on and things.

I'm trying to scroll through here to see if Mark

Mayer is in here, too. But so far, I'm only seeing

Evan and Nate's names. I don't see Mark. So I

thought we could run through this because this

is more information. then you know we i tried

skimming it to find like the best parts but it's

too long to find all of it um so uh let's see

here so we start with will age of the primes

get a sub name in its second year just continue

as is it's just age of the primes So it's not

going to be legacy this or... Is there still

interest in making big Transformers video games

after the Reactivate cancellation? Evan says

yes, there is definitely an interest to pursue

bigger video games for Transformers in the future.

We have no information on that as of this time,

but obviously we would love to see that happen.

They ask about unreleased reactivate concepts,

more reactivate stuff. So this is what I like

about this stuff, and this is what I like about

how these guys interact. With the reveal of Blastoff,

is it a partial of any existing figure, or is

it all new? Nate says, all new. All the Combaticons

are all new. And I can't imagine we'd ever go

away from that for any combiner. And Evan says,

well, the aerial bots, some of them are partials

of each other because they're jets and they're

very similar. It was mentioned before that a

secret mode allowing Omega Prime to put all his

parts together would be published. Are there

many fan modes? Are there many fan modes, but...

An official mode is still something that will

be released. Evan says, yeah, that falls on me.

That was just me being too busy to update it.

And I will definitely get on that. He says, I

will say that the fans have figured it out. And

I have seen some photos. I think it was very

specifically when the Japanese fans got it. They

figured it out like in a minute of opening it

or whatever. Let's see. Brawl being a Voyager.

What would you like to do with Hazlabs in the

future? Are there possibilities you would like

to explore beyond singular, iconic, large characters?

Are you... Are collaboration Hazlabs possible?

Joke's about a G .I. Joe flag collab and it being

gigantic and needing a payment plan. Nate says,

for HasLab, we have our concept for 2026. We

know what we're doing. Ooh, ominous. I don't

like that guy. And Evan says, in future concepts,

I definitely say there's an opportunity. Mark

wants to go wild and weird as he always does.

Yeah, Mark is definitely the wild and wooly one

of the team. Nate goes on to say, as far as collabs

go, so the G .I. Joe ones, they've done very

well. I mean, you have the challenge of trying

to interest G .I. Joe fans, having those three

and three, four inch figures with them. So then

the challenge for us is that we have to make

the. bought to scale for the three to three to

four inch scale and of course brings the collab

up to collab up to significantly i think the

most recent two we've done at least were over

a hundred dollars when it comes to collabs the

strategy behind the collabs is really trying

to get it all new fans interested to transformers

so that's why you're seeing Hot Wheels, NFL,

Naruto, Sonic. Okay, see this, I'm glad I'm reading

this. I'm glad I'm reading this on the podcast

because I would have never, if I had ignored

this story and just not read it at all, I would

have never have known that. Lots of cool ones

we're already working on. And when it comes to

Haslabs, the effort, the marketing dollars and

the engineering dollars and the prototypes and

all of that stuff is so expensive. that we have

to be so certain that it's going to fund because

the whiffs that occasionally happen, Transformers

has been blessed. The Transformers community,

we're five for five. So please support this next

one, which I'm very confident you will. We have

to be so stinking sure because there's lots of

people. that are above us that sign off on yes

we're doing this and we want to make sure that

we are highly focused laser focused on the transformers

fan for the transformers collab similar to the

gi joe team they did hyper focus on the gi joe

fan i mean literally right over there is the

star wars one so muddying the waters yada yada

yada yada so yeah that's and we've been saying

we said last episode i don't know where transformers

is going to go for the next generation for the

after us at for your kids for whoever's kids

out like we we don't know this right here what

he said about hot wheels and nfl and not okay

maybe not nfl for us but you know what i mean

like he's sitting here saying that That's why

we're seeing all this stuff now. That they are

trying certain things to get the kids back. I

don't know if it's working, but... Yeah, I don't

honestly know what's going to work, what's not

going to work. Yep. About the Titan Grimlock,

since we had the leader, is there any kind of

engineering you brought over? Evan says, I would

say there's maybe a few similar transformation

mechanisms, but he's a completely new sculpt,

especially with how that leader class figure,

essentially the back skirt became the tail. And

obviously that doesn't happen on this one because

the tail becomes his mace, et cetera, et cetera.

Okay, more Grimlock. Oh god, they love Grimlock.

Armada Jetfire, maybe Overload. I definitely

hear you there. So starting with Jetfire, yes,

Optimus needs a new pair of pants. Oh my god,

Evan. He will definitely have that functionality

because that's... So iconic to the character.

I definitely think if we do Jetfire in the future,

I would expect that combination to happen. Going

for the Cybertron Optimus Prime, I will tell

you that Yuki -san over at Takara Tomy is a big

fan of that series and that character and making

sure that Wingsaber Leo Breaker always pops up.

Let's see. Is Primus more likely to be a Haslab

or Titan if made? Evan says, more than likely

a Haslab. We've definitely talked about it because

recently there's been a lot of requests for him.

So hopefully at some point in the future, he

can be a future Haslab. They already did Unicron.

They might as well do Primus in the future. Oh,

here you go for you. Yeah, because they say,

what Beast Wars characters do you want to make?

And he goes, oh, that's a very good question.

Let me think about that. Because we did Big Convoy.

He goes, you know what? I've actually gotten

a lot of requests for these guys. And I think

it's something that we need to do. The Combinders

from Beast Wars. The Magna Boss and Tri -Predacus.

They would be a lot of fun to do. That would

be, I think, next on our list if we could get

there. Tri -Predacus? I want Transmetals, man.

We need some new Transmetals. Yes, I agree. I

had Triperdicus back in the day, and my brother

had Magnaboss. But I also know that Magnaboss

suffered from gold plastic syndrome. Mm -hmm.

Yep. Specifically on the silver portion. So.

And Omega Supreme is the only animated figure

they really want to do left, so there's that.

They ask about Lugnut Supreme, but yeah, we like

our redecos, we like our partial tooling, so

yeah, that makes sense. Just to be clear, are

Beast Machines or Energon figures things you're

still interested in doing? Oh yeah, we definitely

talk about that, and just one, because we like

anniversaries. And Energon doesn't get a lot

of love, and it certainly deserves it. Beast

Machines doesn't get a lot of love, and it does

have its fans, and we know that. Obviously, everybody

loves the Viacoms, and everybody loves Tankor.

So I think at some point in the future, folks

can probably expect us to dive more into those

universes. oh man if they if they dive into beast

machines and they finally do an actual cloak

megatron oh i will be all over that yep same

here leader class let's go i got the original

voyager one sitting in my cabinet plus my 3d

print version my 3d print version is bigger than

the Ultra or technically leader class. To hell

with leader class. Make that shit Titan class

or Commander class or whatever. Make it the biggest

you can make it. Well, not if he's got the cloak.

I can see him being Commander. I can't see him

being Titan. I can see the Grand Maul being Titan.

Yeah. Him turning into the ship, like the big

head. Yeah. Oh, I can see that. Yes, because

they did have one slated to come out. Like they

had the little one that had the little spider

legs on it that transformed into a Megatron.

And it was like deluxe, basically, when all of

a sudden done like it was it was Voyager, but

it was it really wasn't. And. Then they had talks

of doing one that was bigger than the Supreme

Class Optimal Optimus of the Grand Mall and having

it transform. And it got scrapped because Beast

Machines was so poorly received. Yeah. So I could

see them... I could see them playing that...

Going back to that well... And being like, hmm,

what can we mine from this? People are going

to kill me for this, but I'm going to say it.

There's a question here. Can we expect Nemesis

Prime out of the 86 mold? Ha! There have been

so many requests for every color version of Optimus

in the 86 mold. I think at some point in the

future, you can expect every color way that you

want in the 86 mold. I would buy SS86 Optimus

in a heartbeat if it was Shattered Glass Purple.

So, funny you say that, the knockoff companies,

they have the Shattered Glass Purple Prime, they

have, with all the battle damage and everything,

they have the Ultra Magnus White, they have the

Nemesis Prime, the Black Prime, you know, and

then they have regular Prime. So there's four

versions floating around right now on the knockoff.

Yep. Trying to see if there's other things that

are. Oh, no. Oh, boy. Here we go. If 86 Rodimus

gets made, presumably as a kingdom reuse, is

he more likely to be an exclusive so that he

doesn't take up one of the yearly commander slots?

If we do an 86 Rodimus, he wouldn't be new. And

that is something that we've kind of been talking

about with Takara Tomy. team as well they would

like to do a new one it's a very different execution

different plans different priorities as well

so he so he will be mainline and we will just

see where he ends up if they do an ss86 rodimus

and then they do him in shattered glass black

and Why are you trying to pull me back in, Transformers?

Stop it. I just want my Funko Pops, dammit. Is

the blue Megatron arm on the back of his packaging

something that's noteworthy, or is it just a

color error? Okay, it's nothing. That's all I'm

going to say. Essentially, it was done by our

team to just kind of show that they all have

different characteristics. Have different characters,

can hold the... Megatron blaster. So that's all

that is. It's not a reference to anything. I've

actually gotten some questions on, okay, what

was the process behind making 86 Prime and Megatron,

especially with the Earthrise figures already

existing? The first thing that we wanted to do

was the scale change for sure. We wanted Optimus

Prime to have a big, beefy trailer. and make

sure he is scaled up more proportionately to

some of our other figures that had come out,

made him a little bit taller, a little bit bulkier,

so that he had a little bit more articulation,

a little bit more in the hands, a little bit

more in the shoulders, and just was, I guess,

overall a better figure. Kind of the same with

the Megatron. It was the silhouette that we wanted

to target with Megatron, and bumping him up to

leader scale made that possible. Talks about

Shattered Glass. Everybody has asked about that.

Nemesis and White Ultra Magnus version. I'll

just say everybody loves that mold, so we will

make sure to get it out there in every color

we can. Get it out in. They ask about mobile

game stuff. Oh, yeah, we've actually talked to

the team about that as a possibility. We definitely

think it's possible. What's interesting is a

lot of the mobile games, some of those designs

are essentially a lot of our toy CAD already.

Wait, what? A lot of our toy CAD already. But

it's possible that in the future when they bring

in unique color, I don't know, whatever. So,

yeah, there's that. And then they do a separate

interview with Nate. And I'm not going to go

through all of that, you guys. Yeah, there's

not much. I mean, there's other stuff, obviously,

in there. We've hit all the good stuff, I would

say. The rest of it is, yeah. But that's kind

of it for the news. I mean, that's pretty much

it. That's all eight of the stories that I had

that I grabbed. And I know they're brainstorming

like a G1 Predaking. Yeah, the Predacons. I was

trying to think of Razor. When we were talking

about Razor, I couldn't think of the damn name.

What the hell is the damn faction name? Predacons.

Duh. oh my god you don't know that but yeah i

mean there's there's a ton of new stuff coming

down the pipe oh yeah and we may you may see

some stuff later this fall when they do you know

hascon or whatever yep yep like i said man it's

uh you just gotta wait and see that uh you never

know so It ain't over till it's over. Yup. Yup.

So I think that about rounds this episode of

the podcast and thank you to everyone who has

been listening for the last 17 years and all

that are new to this podcast as we continue to

just kind of continue into the Transformers realm.

So. you can of course listen to this episode

on geekcastradio .com you can listen on your

favorite podcatcher and you can comment on your

favorite social media platform by uh either hit

me up on on there like if it's twitter at scp21

or yourself tfg1 mike or you can uh hit us up

on the all things transformers facebook page

so uh until next time transform And transcend.

Yeah.