Transformers Toy News and IDW Publishing Discussion

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Welcome to all things transformers. I'm your

host Steve Megatron and joining me in this adventure

into the transformers fandom is TFG1 Mike. Hello.

Hello. So we're gonna talk news tonight. Yep.

Yep. Toys, comics. Cartoons. Yes. Not a lot of

video game stuff tonight. I don't think there's

really much going on there. No, I don't think

I don't I don't think so either. They I mean,

I heard that there's there's some rumbling of

a new game or something, but really nothing's

been great since. What's that company's name?

They did the war for Cybertron Trillion. Yes,

I'm in studios. Yeah, nobody's done it good since

then. And honestly, I just I don't care to play

any of the games when they're not well developed

like that. Yeah, it just depends on how you know

You know you what style you want the game in

you know It just it's the mechanics and all that

and everything else, but yeah, not a lot of Transformers

gaming news lately I guess we should start with

the reveals of blaster with eject pipes and Whoever

the hell Slammer is, I have no idea who that

character is. I've never heard of Slammer. He's,

I mean, obviously he's a tank, but it looks like

they just recycled parts of Megatron and mixed

him with somebody else. But Pipes is basically

Huffer. I mean, yeah, he kind of sort of. And

then really the only draw out of this little

collection here is Blaster with Eject. Mean I

like pipes I you know pipes didn't have a hell

of a lot to do in the in the g1 cartoon But I

did like the few times he did show up that I

mean he showed up more than Huffer so He deserves,

you know Kingdom treatment, I guess but yes blaster

with eject Egypt looks kind of Toxic like his

cassette mode. It's it's like a weird glowing

blue melted piece of plastic in the one image

with the transformation. I feel like they were

going for like this cool vibe thing with it to

be like a translucent cassette. My only gripe

with that is out of the kingdom figure War for

Cybertron figures that I do have that have translucent

plastic, they all shatter at the joints. Yeah.

And so honestly, it's still that same issue that

Hasbro has been dealing with for the past 30

years. With like Beast Wars and various other

series the translucent plastic and the the brittle

plastic which somebody brought that up the the

Cheetor figure for war for Cybertron the Netflix

and the regular one have the gold plastic syndrome

issue because They're so brittle and so thin

that snaps at the the joint where the head is

supposed to fold for transformation and so somebody

actually had to kit bash their figure they used

type of super glue and Reinforce the plastic

thickened it up and then drilled new holes for

the pin to go in and They said that it transformed

so much smoother now that they thickened up the

plastic in there and there was really no reason

to not have more plastic on it, they just cheaped

out on it. But you would think they would learn

about this stuff. No, they just push out bad

quality product just for the sake of having it.

I'm going to have to zoom in on the robot mode,

but I have zoomed in right now the transformed

image of Blaster and Eject where they're in the

cassette and cassette deck mode. And I'm looking

at this cassette alt mode and the blue, It looks

like he's a it looks like the bottom part of

his torso and where his legs are gonna, you know

be formed He looks like a melted ice sculpture

and it just looks wrong to me I you know, I'm

not a Hasbro engineer. I don't know. I have no

clue what they I think they were going for the

cool factor I don't think it had anything to

do with the fact that it does look like a cool

figure but in as far as the the plastic type

that they chose. I think that that is a great

idea for implementation. Yeah. And I guess most

of this, because I am now looking at the robot

mode of it, and I guess most of it is so it can

be blue translucent. But like for me, I would

rather have like we know what eject looks like.

We know his colors, you know the blue colors

the blue g1 colors I would rather have a dark

blue or whatever color He's really supposed to

be and then like try to work into the head sculpt

like, you know translucent blue light piping

on the eyes or something versus this ice cube

mess I don't know. I I don't know. Blaster itself

though looks amazing. You look Oh yeah, totally

amazing. It looks totally better than the original

figure and captures all the details perfectly

and he's in scale with everyone else. Yep. Oh,

great job. That one is tempting enough on its

own. Now, now. I'm not. Let's not go overboard.

I'm only doing beasts. I'm almost at the end

of that rope. Up next, we have Buzzworthy Cliffjumper,

which we knew that was going to happen, didn't

we? I mean, come on. Oh, yeah. It's a repaint.

It's going to happen. Yeah. I like the head sculpt.

I like the coloring on him. I just wish they

would have given him... So they give him these

giant guns, and that's fine. You know what? Transformers

have always had guns. You know, it's not that

big of a deal. I don't know if it's maybe I just

wish they were done this with the pictures but

like I wish they would have done something with

the the giant gun in the bottom right hand picture

where he's in a pose of I've got Megatron in

my viewfinder like in you know kind of mimicking

the episode like you know he was this sniper

guy kind of thing and whatever but other than

that no buzz with the cliff jumper does look

awesome. Does look really cool. I will say though

the The supposed shield Don't know. I assume

it's supposed to be a shield. It's the Like the

sixth picture on the right down where he's got

like his the back of it basically his his His

back windshield in his hand. It just looks weird.

I don't know Well, and the funny thing is, it's

listed if you look at it, it says Studio Series

Transformers the movie. He didn't have that transformation

as far as I can remember. No. And it's the buzzworthy

Studio Series 86. It's really weird marketing.

Yeah, it really, really is. Because, I mean,

let's face it, Cliffjumper transforms maybe...

Wait, where was he in the movie? Where was Cliffjumper

with Jazzy? That's right. That's right. Because

Bumblebee and Spike were together. It was Jazz

and Cliffjumper. Yep. Yep. Yep. I remember now

I should know this by like the back of my hand,

but it's been a rough couple of months folks

Yeah, he didn't really like he had one transformation

at the end of the movie when they were blasting

out a unicorn's eye Yeah, when they were blasting

out a unicorn's eye And then there's the core

class hot rod that's coming. Yep, it's already

been spotted in retail In I'm trying to figure

out where but it's been spotted in in store Already

at this point like I've I'm TFW. They have an

updated photo of him and in the case and he has

a sword Like an energon sword and he looks If

it weren't for the fact that their core class

like some of these look great in core class and

then other ones look terrible he has so much

kibble on his legs and and holes for no reason

other than the fact they just did it like the

back of his head, you know and He looks alright

in both modes, but he looks better in car mode

than he does in robot Mean I get what they're

trying for he's He's he's core class. So they're

not gonna put a ton of detail into it and a lot

of mechanics or anything It's pretty much three

colors. It's red orange and yellow Right, but

and maybe a little bit of silver gray but I don't

know. It just looks it looks poor on implementation

like If you're gonna get hot rod just get the

studio series 86 figure and just be done with

it because for 30, you can get a spot on version

of Hot Rod. This is not even a temptation for

me. The 86 figure, that was a temptation. Yeah,

yeah. Because it looks sweet. Like the Rodimus

looks for 80. And then you've got this one. And

honestly, the 86 figure is probably the best

rendition we've ever gotten. Yep. Yeah, absolutely.

And then we switch over to animation. We have

part one, The Immobilizers, and part two, The

Perfect Decepticon. Season four of Cyberverse

is now streaming. I remember we kind of talked

about this, but I'm only bringing it up now because

at some point we will do two new episodes of

ACTF covering each of these, or we can do one

covering both of them all together. But I did

watch them. I don't... remember right off the

top of my head, but I did enjoy. Nothing in these

like jumped out at me like, oh my God, why would

they do that? Kind of like it wasn't bad. It

was really, really good. So I did enjoy watching

them. I do. I remember when they were first coming

out, we had mentioned them and I had mentioned

that, yeah, I watched the first one, but I hadn't

seen the second one yet and they region locked

them. I don't know if they are still region locked,

but I remember several of my Transformers friends

who were in the UK like, why would they region

lock these? Yeah, I watched the first one, the

immobilizers. I haven't. I haven't watched the

other part yet. I think they're on Netflix. No,

they're both on. Yeah, I know they're on the

Transformers YouTube channel, but I'm thinking

also... Yeah, season four. Well, there is one

of the two. The Immobilizers is on Netflix. The

other one is not yet. It was supposed to be,

but eventually it will be, I guess. I don't know.

Anyway. Yeah, season three is not on there, which

is weird. No. Well, I think that's because season

three was... Don't I I Even tweeted about that

at the time when when whatever I understand it's

a weird The Transformers stuff ever since streaming

was a thing has always kind of like been in this

weird rights thing like 2b TV has All of Beast

Wars all of us all the old stuff, right? It has

all the old stuff except for one Because they're

they're split up. No Well, maybe I don't know

but it is is not on there, right? But for some

odd reason at first Netflix had all three seasons

of Transformers Prime now They only have season

one and you have to go to 2b to see season 2

and 3 which is really weird I don't understand

that at all, but It is what it is. Streaming

rights be streaming rights, I guess. Up next,

we've got the Transformers Devastation soundtrack

is now available for streaming and digital download.

I have listened to several of it. I have not

listened to all of it all at once. And yes, the

interview hopefully with Vince DiCola will be

coming soon. Things in my life kind of. Are in

upheaval or they were when I was supposed to

do that interview with him and I'm just said

to his his management I'm like, can we reschedule

because Yeah Yeah life But I have listened to

it and I've heard that and I haven't played through

the devastation game So I don't know I have I

love the game. Well, it's it's awesome. I love

the self shading Yeah, I love the voice acting

because you get a lot of the old cast back Yep.

I've seen and I've heard that most of the tracks

on the soundtrack are like boss battles and main

theme kind of things and I've watched several

playthroughs of it. I haven't watched like the

whole game playthrough, but I've watched like

the first few levels of it and I was like, oh,

okay, cool. So it's fun. I enjoy it. Yep, I enjoy

high moon stuff better, but yeah Yeah, it depends

on the style now one game I wish that they would

or one series I wish that they would come back

with these works We so need a good Beast Wars

game that first one from the 90s is terrible.

The voice cast is not even the actual voice cast.

Right. And then the game, like they're fighting

some alien race that has nothing to do with the

series. And it's like the Skricks or something.

And it's the the the yeah, the game, it's so

it's aged so badly. I remember I used to have

it for download on PredaconEmpire .com. Years

ago, yeah, I had it so file and then I had the

hack that allowed them to not have to have a

CD and. which you can just mount an ISO file

and you can play it just fine. There's a website

you can actually play it online for free. Oh

wow, very cool. I remember playing that online

with the MSN Gaming Zone. Anyways, I wish that

we would get a Beast Wars game like we have with

G1, but I guess only time will tell. And it'd

be nice to get the old voice cast back that are

all still for the moment among us. Yes. As they

age. Yes. Switching over to comics the Transformers

shattered glass miniseries will be traded in

it will be collected and trade paperback It is

currently available for pre -order on Amazon.

It would is set to release on July 26th of next

year. I Don't understand that but okay Seeing

as how the fifth issue is coming soon Anyway,

there's that And then we have IDW's February

2022 Solicits and then additional cover arts.

So the cover I had mentioned when we did issues

9 and 10 of the comic, when I'm like, oh, they

have listings on Comicsology for 11, 12, and

13. And I'm like, ooh, 13. I don't know if this

is a final cover, but it's Rhinox. where he's

transforming and he's got, you know, his chain

guns of doom and you see all the bullet casings

flying everywhere. I love this cover. Well, Rhinox

is cool anyway. Well, yes. Yep. And he's more

than a grunt. He's their chief scientist and

techie outside of Rattrap being a techie. Yep.

So it's nice to see. Whenever he gets those out,

you know He's not afraid of Combating people.

I mean for crying out loud when the shields fell

he took on rampage by himself. Yep So yeah, yeah,

I don't know I I Would be very happy to see the

series continue on no matter what happens with

the property whether you know because Hasbro

as we all know is a big bag of crazy a lot of

the time. And I say that in the kindest of words,

only because it seems like they can't stick to

anything. And again, like I mentioned, when we

did the tribute to the CEO who passed away, what's

going to happen now that that guy is not in charge,

is not the CEO anymore? The next CEO, whoever

that's going to be, What are their ideas going

to be for the brand going forward, specifically

to Transformers? Now, I think Hasbro will, depending

on whatever they decide and whatever the ideas

are, give them a fair shake since they've had

the brand for so long. However, we have seen

them pull the plug and move to various places.

They got burned with Dreamwave. They had it on

Marvel for quite some time. I don't see them

going partnering with Marvel. They've done more

of a Part two network Nickelodeon. I was talking

about the toys not the comics but Yes, huge rumor.

We don't know we have not seen any concrete news

stories, but I do know that sadly I believe IDW

is losing the license for GI Joe and Transformers

Well, they've already lost the license for Marvel

and Star Wars, so. Yeah, which that's that's

a huge blow. I'm surprised that I mean, Dark

Horse is funny enough getting back Star Wars

for at least the the the larger stuff for the

kids stuff. Yeah, I think Marvel's going to end

up with it again. Maybe and because, well, it

would make sense because Disney owns Marvel.

True. Keep it all in house. It's a lot easier

to control. And then they don't have to lease

it out to someone else. They get to make the

property what they want. But that's the only

thing that scares me with the Transformers, because

you do have ongoing storylines right now, which

could never be resolved, or it may take 20 years

for them to get resolved like Marvel did when

Marvel went, you know, with issue 80 and then

just kind of disappeared. Yeah, the brand and

then you just didn't have anything until Dreamwave

took it over and then And then and then finally

with IDW you get the the regeneration one kind

of grand finale Which I haven't caught up on

any of it like I've read the regeneration one

stuff Which they are pretty good and it felt

very in line with what came out. However, I I

was a little I just I haven't had a chance to

read any of the stuff that takes place after

the SU 100 when they like kind of rebooted it.

Yeah, and I'll be sad if the Beast Wars one gets

shut down because this is the first time we've

managed to get a series even though Dreamwave

kind of teased it in IDW. Finally, I mean we've

had two. This is the third series with Beast

Wars involved. Yeah, you know, I don't know.

Hopefully. Beast Wars will get its chance to

shine which it is shining currently Here's hoping

if the thing does leave IDW and it goes somewhere

else. They will continue it or You know, I don't

know if it gets rebooted. It gets rebooted. I

mean, there's really nothing. Yeah Yeah, there's

nothing we can do about it. But I mean it just

It's it's really sad to me that IDW is in the

state that they are in because they have been

Well, I think I think it's hemorrhaging money

for months upon months upon I Think that it's

it's multiple factors. I think one kovat kind

of screwed the pooch on everything. Yep, and

and two People just don't go to comic shops as

much as they used to people don't go I mean you

used to have the subscription plans like you

remember those back in the day when It's your

parent would subscribe and then you'd have the

the comics mailed to your house Yeah, I mean

I I remember those days and actually I enjoyed

them because they came to me I didn't have to

go out and get them but The you know, then there's

the fact that you have people that are Will rush

out and get certain issues or they'll run out

or they won't order enough or You know just comic

shops closing down in general Yeah price of comics

and I'm not saying these guys shouldn't get paid

it's I realize that you're playing a slippery

slope every time you publish one of these because

you got to make sure that the establishment gets

paid you got to make sure that you know the the

artists the writers the you know the pencilers,

you know all of these different departments get

paid and So you you have to increase the price

But that's also a double -edged sword because

then people are like well Do I need? To eat this

month. Do I need this or do I need the comic?

You know, and it's like well pass on the comic

and You know whether that's fair or not. It's

kind of sad but and then the other thing that

kind of boils down to it it's I think people

are just kind of tired of some of the storytelling

and Some of the art like people are just kind

of like, you know, I'm kind of I'm ready for

something different It depends on what it is

it like whether it's transformers or whatever

it but for me it specifically it depends on what

it is It depends on if I'm hooked on the story

or not and I I know and I'm not gonna make Like

I don't mind going through it but you and I were

struggling with IDW The new transformers universe

when we covered volumes one two and three once

they rebooted That's what I'm saying IDW one

two volumes one two and three of the new universe

that they now have You and I were struggling

during those podcast recordings and editing and

whatever so if I do Do any more of that? I'll

probably find somebody else to see if there's

any because I I don't know I mean I'll read them

with you like for the sake of reading them just

so I can compare them but I think in the future

it might merit going back and reading some of

the Marvel stuff and reading some of the the

Dreamwave stuff and then just making a comparison

of the different rights holders to the franchise

and seeing what we liked about each one and what

we disliked about each one and seeing if we can

come up with that middle ground of what we think

could make the perfect version of someone holding

the rights. The sad thing is, is that the Dreamwave

stuff is not available digitally as far as I

know. No, don't say that. No, no, no. I know

you have your Waze and whatever. No, no, no.

I actually have them all digitally. No, I understand

that you do, and that's fine. And I'm not trying

to get into all that. I'm just saying. If you

search on Comixology, because Comixology is still

a thing even though they're not supposed to be

soon or something or whatever, whatever the hell's

Amazonology. Yeah, whatever. But like I just

searched for Dreamwave Studios on Comixology

.com. The only thing they have is Daredevil 2099

and Black Panther 2099. That's available for

digital on Comixology now. I don't know if they're

elsewhere. Like you said, you have them and that's

fine. That's great. And I don't mind. There's

also a comics website that has a bunch of free

comics. Yeah. That it actually has like everything

under the sun on it for free. And again, not

saying that you shouldn't buy the comics if you

enjoy them. Yeah. But the if you can't physically

find them anymore. Yeah. That's a little bit

different story. Yeah, that's that's like. That's

like the olden days of, you know, like software

of, you know, games that were on floppy. And

it's like, well, I can't find this DOS game anymore.

Yep. Yep, yep, yep. Anything else we need to

bring up? Well, I was going to bring up the fact

that we also have. Well, with the rights thing,

there's that rumor that Skybound company is the

walking dead. is interested, and I guess Robert

Kirkman is a huge Transformers fan of the toy

brand and said that it's a possibility that he's

gotten involved with chasing the rights, but

there's no, there's no deal. Yeah, there's no

concrete evidence. You're saying whoever gets

the rights wouldn't get it until 2023. Oh, okay,

well then. So it sounds like New books would

not be expected to hit shelves until 2023, whoever

got the deal. Yeah. So I mean, IDW is going to

probably then keep doing what they're doing with

it. We'll probably finish it off proper. Yeah.

We're done. So that's fine. And right now, really,

honestly, I'm only really reading the Beast Wars

comic from IDW. I am not reading the main series

right now. As long as we keep getting Beast Wars

comics, you know, that's fine by me. That's the

only ones I seem to be interested in, though.

But it's I think it's because they're taking

the mythos that we know and love in reinventing

it. Yeah. They're not trying to play the same.

I mean, I mean, you could say the same for for

War for Cybertron Kingdom, you know, trying to

do that, except that was just like it was just

terrible as far as. The the trying to reinvent

it like how they went about it Just it felt unearned.

Whereas this it's it's earned and it's it's changing

key elements that made the characters who they

were in the show and giving them kind of a new

spin on the same dynamic whether it be like Dinobot

and his traitoring or you know, just Things like

that. So I I enjoyed that Now the only other

thing I have is the sightings the figures okay

wave the the final wave of it is out with like

Tigatron I happen to see one in the wild about

middle of last week actually it was it was quite

funny because I one morning had this inkling

you know I should probably go to Walmart And

I walk in there and I'm not expecting to see

anything. I'd been all over the place. I'd called.

Granted, when I was looking, I was looking for

other things too when I went in. Otherwise, I

would not have gone in the store. So anyways,

I went in, I checked, and then lo and behold

were two Tigatrons. And I was like, okay, this

is great. And I bought them both. And I took

a photo for the the the discord channel with

with all spark and I was like hey, they're they're

in Colorado now and then I I Opened one of them

and the other one is going to be for my kid probably

sometime after Christmas because They've been

bad. They don't they don't get toys for Christmas

So I have the uh the the reissue optimus primal

for my youngest who wants that and i i said oh

everything that's old is new again because i

had that figure i said the only difference is

is it's got a dark face instead of the light

blue right and in robot so it's it's awesome

in that regard but yeah they're both excited

for it i got it in my cabinet at work i just

haven't brought them home but So pretty much

I got the whole season one cast. I just need,

I think, Terror, Sword, and Inferno to make my

season one Predacon side. And that'll be awesome.

But they're reissuing Tigatron and Scorponok

in stores right now, too. They're starting to

show up. Which is very cool. I like the fact

that the Tigertron is showing up in stores because

I'd never seen one of the original ones in the

store when I was a kid. Right. But yeah, the

photos that they show, they're showing right

next to the Core Hot Rod and the reissue Scorponok

and yeah, so lots of cool stuff coming out. Very

cool, very cool. Coming up next on all things

Transformers, haven't figured out how we're doing

this or what we're doing with it, but, um, you're

going to get six weeks of movies, folks. I don't

know how. The torture! My eyes! We're starting

in continuity order, so we are starting with

Bumblebee. Oh, so we start with the best one

and work our way down. Yeah. It gets progressively

worse as we go. Yes, pretty much. So we're going

to start with Bumblebee. We'll go through the

first film, the second film, Dark of the Moon,

Age of Extinction, and then The Last Night. And

then after that, we will probably do either two

episodes for the Cyberverse movies or we'll do

one episode with both movies in them. So yeah,

that's the plans that I have, at least here on

All Things Transformers, at least until newer

news or more interesting news comes out because

it's the middle of December, folks. It's the

holidays. I do know TFCon Toronto just happened

this past weekend. So that happened. I don't

think anything major came out of it as far as

news or anything like that, or else Proto Man

would have said something to me or on his YouTube

channel and things like that. But yeah. I mean,

you know, we hope everyone has a merry Christmas

and happy holidays and whatever you choose to

celebrate and all that, and... Mm -hmm. Coming

up next is movie talk. Yes. Unfortunately for

you. Uh -huh. Oh, God. All right. So we're gonna

get the heck out of here. We will catch you next

time here on All Things Transformers. I wish

to speak to my lawyer.