Transformers News, Toy Highlights, and Holiday Greetings

Hey, this is Steve blue and you are listening

to the geek cast radio network This is Optimus

Prime and you're listening to all things transformers

Hello and welcome to All Things Transformers.

I'm your host, Steve Mechatron Phillips, and

in this episode, I'll be covering... Well, a

couple different things, actually. It's been

a while since I've recorded one of these, and

I thought that for the last episode of 2017,

I would round out this episode with some Transformers

news. And getting right off the bat here, we

have... Some brand new Wizards of the Coast transformers

trading game coming in 2018 Coming next fall

actually in September or October They said they

they think that transformers is cool and the

game is interesting unique mechanics All cards

are two -sided oversized and feel bigger waiter

in your hand They're saying it should take one

or two times to understand how to play, and it's

got a unique rule set built around two decks.

One of the decks is Hero, and the other is used

to amp up Heroes. The strategy around the play,

he says, is to choose the right Hero with the

right abilities and powers. They're also considering

making a digital version of the game once it

launches, depending on how it is received. Transformers

will be brand new to Wizards. I have to say that

the art on this is spectacular. spectacular.

They're taking cues from G1, obviously. I'm sure

there'll be other iterations in this, but they've

got kind of some of that Legends look of Transformers.

I have to say, I'm kind of stoked for this just

because even if you don't want to play it as

a game, the art on it is great. For instance,

you get Optimus Prime doing his finger point

thing, which is kind of a rehashed image, but

you get a nice Megatron firing the fusion cannon,

followed by a Prime doing his Transformers the

movie, running over the various Decepticons,

and then you get Megatron in tank mode firing.

It's very, very awesome to look at, actually.

I think that that's definitely something to look

forward to in 2018. Among other things, there's

also this Imaginarium art on Facebook. They give

their teaser image on their take of G1 Megatron,

which adds some of the IDW, along with some new

textures and curvatures to his character. It's

got official Transformers logo stuff on it, authentic

whatever. But they announced statues for Optimus

Prime and Megatron, and they give their first

look at the torso of the ruthless Decepticon

leader Megatron with his fusion cannon. This

new stylized design, very recognizable as G1,

however, it looks pretty freaking sweet. There's

no release date yet for the for the statue, but

I do have to say that I'm quite surprised with

how well this looks. Even in black and white,

just the CG model for this is, I love it. If

they made a G1, like a Transformers show, based

off of these designs that are here, rather than

what we've gotten, for the last, I don't know,

15 years, I would be extremely happy with it.

Even if they did it as a film, this would be

something worth looking into in the future. So,

you guys will have to let me know what you think

on that. Generation Toys. Comes up with Generation

GT10. Optimus Primal. Their incarnation of the

Maximo Commander kind of has a nice original

design to it, a little bit of almost a mechanical

beast, very much in the vein of a lot of the

third party stuff. The swords are very reminiscent

of his... His current masterpiece figure anyway,

the head is very reminiscent of that as well

I do have to say I love this design for a third

party for the for the generation toy aesthetic

and the way Primal looks and with his shoulder

cannons and the way the fists look and Just the

the boxy nature of it just looks freaking awesome

and it gives it kind of a more of a Texture look

like as if if the optimus primal were to have

Had more of the optimus prime influx Which is

is honestly kind of cool to see Because you get

to see him with his sword you can see him with

his shoulder cannons They show him in his beast

form I think it's pretty sweet. Honestly, I This

this maximal commander version of Optimus Primal

if it weren't for the fact I already have the

masterpiece I would get this as well I Would

love to see what a Megatron looks like in this

because I know that there was already the The

the kind of knockoff Beast Wars Transmetal Dragon

Megatron figure that that kind of came out Or

is coming out for like 179 ish but I love that

this this new figure which is coming out January

yeah in a couple weeks actually it's gonna be

a hundred nineteen dollars because it's it's

a pre -order but man it's just it's slick it's

amazing the the the engineering that goes into

these new modern Transformers toys considering

what we got as kids like I'm I'm an 80s, 90s

kid. I kind of was raised in a lot of this. It's

hard for me to look at this stuff now because

I'm like, man, these are wicked, like just awesome

designs and I don't have the funds for any of

it. Not that I wouldn't love to get my hands

on these, but just the detail, the level of detail

alone. Mind -blowing on all of these these new

toys that come out nowadays I It makes me wish

that I Saved my money a lot more Over the years

and was able to Just have it that have or even

have extra spending money honestly just so that

I could get some of these I I love Beast Wars

and any time this comes up and there's new designs

and it's just It's spectacular. That being said,

something that's not as spectacular, Machinima's

Transformers Titans Return, we're eight episodes

in already and it's still trying to catch up

or get ground. I still don't know what to think

about this. I know it's not over yet, but I still

don't... I don't know what... What to think of

it yet? I know that you can watch there's there's

a Tumblr page where you can watch the entire

series and If you don't want to watch it and

go 90 it's it's on like Transformers prime wars

dot Tumblr comm Where you can watch? The rest

of the episodes which I plan on doing But I think

there's the rest of the episodes anyway. They

made it sound like You can see the entire series

here, but they said that I think they're they're

getting ready for the the prime wars Honestly,

it's it's Not my favorite thing they've been

doing but I guess we'll just kind of wait and

see I It's I don't know what you guys think about

this series. Honestly, I'm I'm kind of over it.

I love the animation style. Some of the voice

acting leaves thoughts to be desired on that.

The Prime having the cracked windshields kind

of bother me. Then they've kind of mentioned

things with the Primes. You know, the power of

the Primes. They kind of mentioned it to Optimus

Prime while he's... you know, the smallest of

the Transformers fighting Trypticon among the

Combiners and Fortress Maximus. We still have

yet to see what happens to Rodimus and Overlord

and Megatron, so I guess we'll just have to wait

and see what happens, but I'm not all that engrossed

in the series at this point. However, there is

Transformers Cyberverse Season 1 episode count

and running time revealed. Hasbro Studios also

brought the first look at Rescue Bots Academy

as well, which is basically... This one is done

by Boulder Media Limited, which you have almost

that chibi kind of Transformers. It's an upcoming

Transformers Rescue Bots Academy, which is done,

like I said, by Boulder Media. to be released

in 2019. It's going to be a sequel series to

the Rescue Bots series. And it looks like totally

new bots involved. The first season of that will

have 52 episodes with 11 minutes of running time

each. Which I kind of figured that they were

going to go that route just because in most children's

modern animation series they go for that 11 minute

thing instead of the 23 minutes. I kind of get

it. I mean, these two new series, Cyberverse

and Rescue Bots Academy, are definitely not geared

towards my age group or those above 10, just

based on the animation and the fact that they're

11 -minute episodes. Even looking at Justice

League action, which are I think between 5 and

11 minute episodes, too I don't really like those

as much, but I know this that they're cheaper

to do more episodes with doing 11 minutes, and

it's I guess that they're just doing it a little

bit differently So anyways rescue bots Academy

will be an all -new cast with cameo appearances

by familiar faces from the old show the new group

of bots are hot shot Whirl, Medics, Hoist, and

Wedge, being the first ever class to enroll in

Earth's Rescue Bot Training Academy and learn

how to be Earth's heroes through hands -on experience,

target audience three to five years old. So they

have that, and then they've got some of the old

cast kind of being their mentors, their teachers.

So. Yeah, it's it's kind of interesting. It's

gonna be out, you know in in 2019 It's in production

this year And then and then in cyberverse Like

I said again not in our age group. I wish that

they would do something above that But I guess

they're thinking that the machinima stuff is

and it's utter garbage Writing wise so I'm not

following why I mean, I like the animation, don't

get me wrong. Like I said, the writing is terrible

and I hate the five minute episode thing. I wish

we could just get a whole mini movie and have

them all put together kind of like G .I. Joe

Resolute. I think that it's kind of annoying

to wait a week for five minutes. And they're

not even that good. It's almost something that

I would rather just watch, blitz through it all

at the end and download them all. and splice

them into a film. But anyway, Cyberverse will

consist of 18 episodes, which is quite short,

actually. Going to be available in 2018. The

target audience is 6 to 11. They're going to

be 11 minute episodes. Basically, they're saying

Cyberverse Chapter 1 is Bumblebee's on a critical

mission where lives are at stake, only he can't

remember what it is. It's a good thing his best

friend Wingblade, Mary Sue McGuffin, has found

him to help repair his damaged memory chips with

each recovered memory. Bumblebee rediscovers

his past adventures on Cybertron before coming

to Earth. He relives fun moments when he played

Cybertronian sports with his friends and even

tragic ones that could change his life. His past

will shape him into becoming the hero we know

today. As each memory is repaired, another clue

comes to light that will lead them both to complete

their shared mission to save their friends and

Earth. However, the Decepticons are hot on their

heels and time is running out. Meh. I do like

the new design of Bumblebee here. Wingblade I

could... Meh. And then Prime, I don't like how

they did away with his faceplate. But yeah, this

is done by Boulder Media as well. So yeah, I

mean, I'm kind of on the fence on that. But something

that's really cool that kind of popped up is

right around Christmas, Gary Chalk, Beast Wars

Optimus Primal, sent a Christmas wish to Transformers

fans, and his message is a direct reply to David

Kay's. Beast Wars Megatron, who inquired the

whereabouts of Optimus Primal through his annual

Christmas wish back in 2016. David sang a Megatron

-ish version of Blue Christmas, and Gary's replied

this year with a wonderful rendition of You're

a Mean One, Mr. Megatron, written by Candice

Santora. So, it's funny that he came up with

that on December 20th? and David Kay on the 23rd

comes out with his annual holiday greeting sung

by Beastworth Megatron. This one was a twist

on Optimus Primal's holiday greeting in which

he basically calls back out Gary Chalk who called

him out on the previous one saying Where are

you optimus instead of where are you Christmas?

And it was it was quite humorous to to behold

so you'll have to check that out on YouTube It's

it's quite nice, and then I look forward to his

stuff every year So what have you guys been looking

forward to that's coming up in 2018 for transformers

I? Like I said, I'm loving the the third party

stuff that I'm seeing come out and then the the

new statue I'm waiting to see what's going to

happen with Cyberverse and hopefully some new

masterpiece figures because I'm hoping Megatron's

among them this year. You never know. You never

know. But yeah, it's crazy. It's the end of the

year already and we're You know three Masterpiece

Beast Wars figures in and more to come and a

bunch of knockoffs available and You know, it's

it's just it's it's been fun and for those that

don't know you can access the Transformers Headmasters

episode 8 six shades of terror English Fandub

by Prime Productions ULTD on YouTube it's It's

the the fan dubs done by TF COG and I'm Scourge

in the episode among other people that are in

it. You have, you know, archives of Chris Lott

as Starscream. You have Derek James, who's the

editor and it's been a lot of fun being a part

of that production. That was the very first Transformers

fan dub that I was a part of and I'm still a

part of this home on the web and it's not monetized.

It's fun to watch anyway. I really have a lot

of fun doing To doing these these Episodes it's

it's it's very much a passion of mine to do voice

acting and I would love to do it full time But

It's I guess you just kind of have to live and

just do it for the fun of it and if something

ever comes out of it then great, but Yeah, it's

been a lot of fun doing that. I can't wait to

record the next episode. It's taken forever to

get these episodes done. I've been doing this

Fandub since 2005, and it's passed over three

different hands over that time, but it's been

a lot of fun to do, and I learned actually how

to edit audio by doing my recordings for the

Fandubs, which was different. Say the least and

then that's that's after that point is when I

jumped on to TF wire comm which is defunct at

this point, but Yeah, that started my journey

into podcasting and and heavy hitting and transformers

so Yeah, that's that's nuts We did those episodes

a long time ago So What do you guys think? What's

some things you're looking forward to? I know

Brad mentions from the last episode I did, which

was Titans Return, Headmasters and Fandubs, Toys,

Top TF Podcasts, and Origins of Ultimus Prime.

Brad says, I'm not even going to continue knocking

Titans Return, I've stopped watching, so I'll

stop complaining. A possible listener question

might be, what's your favorite figure released

this year, or favorite figure purchased this

year? I haven't actually purchased any Transformers.

The last one I bought was Optimus Primal Masterpiece

funny enough, and I think I got him last January

Yeah, I got him last January January of 2017.

I got that figure and By far like I didn't want

to open it on on the air. I was having a hard

enough time transforming him I didn't want to

change his faceplate or anything But that was

by far my favorite because my first Beast Wars

figure was Optimus Primal and the original toy

was just terrible. So I'm so happy for my Masterpiece

version. But I would have to say my favorite

figures that are released are a lot of the knockoffs

and then of course Masterpiece, Cheetor, and

Dinobot. I know DinoBot's technically not out

yet, but still I kind of considered with the

news of it. And then the knockoff Transmetal

Dragon Megatron. These things are all kind of

my go -to favorites design -wise and aesthetics.

So what are some things you guys want to hear

in the next episode? I'm all ears. I'd like to

see what you guys want. I'm going to jump back

into a little bit of maybe Transformers Prime

and talk about that since we never did an actual

Transformers Prime review and then maybe I'll

go back and do some of my like overviews of the

headmasters that I've done with TFCOG and maybe

get one of those guys over for an interview for

the process of the whole... the whole thing.

And I do plan on getting their episodes all up

on allthingstransformers .com in the near future,

so stay tuned for that. So until next time, transform

and roll out.