Hasbro Transformers Fan Panel Discussion

Hey, it's David Kaye, voice of Beast Wars Megatron

and TFA Optimus. You're listening to the Geekcast

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things Transformers. This is Optimus Prime, and

you're listening to all things Transformers.

and welcome to All Things Transformers. I'm your

host, Steve Megatron, and joining me is TFG1

Mike. Hello, hello. Hello, hello. And as some

will probably note, I'm not in my typical recording

situation. I'm in my car because we're recording

this the next day while I'm at work about the

Transformers fan panel roundtable. Yeah, the

Hasbro fan panel that we aren't on we've been

covering transformers things for almost 20 years

not really but Yeah, almost 15. I mean I started

that TFW or TF wire in 2007 yeah, and then 2006

actually, but it's neither here nor there anyways

anyway, so Have emailed and reached out to Hasbro

so if anybody can help me get on one of those

panels or get included in the press things because

That would be awesome. That would be awesome

because we've like we said we've been covering

transformers for about 15 years and Also, that's

pretty much what our network was founded on was

transformers. Yep So anybody has a leg up let

us know. Yeah I've gmailed to no avail. Will

we see Legacy in Generation Selects or Buzzworthy

Bumblebee? The answer is Legacy will definitely

continue to pop up in Generation Selects like

Black Zarek and Lyft Ticket. Meanwhile, Buzzworthy

is a capsule program for Target using the Legacy

branding. That's interesting. Yeah, I mean, I've

seen the the Buzzworthy Bumblebee stuff at Target.

and like they have blue streak they have the

studio series 86 cup just slightly repainted

so i mean they they have some things in there

that aren't in the other kits however i i prefer

the legacy branding i just like the the look

of it i like how they've packaged it how the

you know the things that are available in it

the generation selects while i do like them i

wish that you could get the figures in retail

yeah Because that has made it very difficult

in some instances where they sell out now granted

I want lift ticket, but I honestly don't want

to order it I I want to go and it's it's the

only reason let me preface this with the only

reason I want lift ticket is because it's a cheaper

alternative to getting trail breaker which is

Probably as close to the old 80s truck that I

used to own that I'm ever gonna get as a transformer

Right And it has a topper, which my truck had

at one point. And then I figure I can repaint

it in the colors of my old truck and then see

where it goes from there. But I don't need a

lift ticket. I would probably pick it up if it

was at retail, but I'm not going to go out of

my way to order it either. But I do love the

fact that Legacy is going to continue to pop

up for some time in the various sublines that

are exclusive to certain areas. Yeah, and that's

the cool thing and we'll get to this a little

bit later. That's the cool thing about this specific

panel is I've said it on every episode you and

I have talked about this since the end of 2021

where we weren't sure what the hell was going

on. Now we know what's going on. Now we know

that there was a plan. It just wasn't told to

the public yet at the time. Yeah, well, and we'll

get to this later in this this breakdown as well

that their legacy concept is doing quite well.

Continue on with the next question. Yes, sir.

Second question that was asked, with the combiner

limbs scattered across waves, doesn't that make

it difficult for kids to collect the combiner?

The answer they gave was they might look into

doing a gift set at some point. Hey man if they

want to bring back gift sets sure I mean if it's

one way for kids to get the whole thing all at

once like I don't like I don't know I don't mind

the whole gotta catch them all gotta find them

all see that's the that's the problem and this

is a whole other topic for toy cast at some point

but the problem with today's toy market is you

have both seven year olds and 40 year olds that

both think they're kids only one is a child one

the other one acts like a child but like seriously

like that's the problem is I don't necessarily

think it's stock issues I think it's it's you

know it's a it's it's a multitude of contributing

factors some of its stocks some of its factories

some of its the unloading of the vehicles although

I find that one to be slimming down very quickly

uh like they're getting stocked up quick the

problem is is the exclusives are the ones that

are kind of available they're either a shelf

warming hard uh like some of the buzzwordy or

like some of the cyberverse or some of the kingdom

that's come back out in recent waves that came

out in like first wave or and then came back

out with fourth and fifth wave Some of it's shelf

warming and then some of it's just blowing right

out of the water like they're they're not staying

in the stores and it's both because Either kids

are managing to get it 40 year olds are managing

to get it or the good probability is there's

a ton of scalpers out there blowing it Blowing

their money on getting them in the store so they

can sell them on eBay for an exorbitant price

Yeah Which is ridiculous. That's more likely

than the 40 -year -old collector because... True.

The 40 -year -old collector is in it, like they're

like, yeah, I might pick up two, but most of

the time I'm going to pick up one and I want

to have this one. And, you know, the kids are

able to pick it up if they want it. But for the

most part, it's the scalpers making this stuff

disappear. Yeah, it's crazy. All right. Take

it away with your questions. So, with recent

toys showing yellowing at a rapid pace, are there

any concern for figures such as Starsaber with

a huge amount of white plastic? And their response

was, this is a huge deal to Hasbro, but due to

the pandemic, they haven't been able to fully

investigate as much as they wanted to. Engineering

has been informed and they are continuing to

examine the situation thanks to the help of all

the pictures people have been sending in. Honestly,

it's nice that they're taking that into consideration

they're looking into it genuinely and I I don't

know if it comes up later in these questions,

but I know that they they addressed it to some

degree about it was a type of plastic that they

were using to harden the the plastic more like

to make it more more firm and More solid and

whatever they were using in that mix was causing

the yellowing so they've kind of identified it

now at this point and are able to kind of think

about it in the future and I guess they put it

through UV lighting to make sure that it's not

going to yellow and I guess something with fluorescent

lighting or certain kind of lighting triggers

it to have that chemical reaction where it changes

color whereas if it doesn't get a lot of light

or if it's like LED it seems to be a little better

Yeah, like I have LED lighting in my office.

I don't let daylight in because I don't really

need it plus I It would blind me where I have

my desk located So I have LED lighting because

fluorescent gives me a migraine which is difficult

when I'm at work because I have fluorescent and

natural lighting and they're fading in and out

between the sunlight color, so it's just it's

Damaging to the eyes. I prefer my LEDs at home,

but But yeah, so it's good that Hasbro is paying

attention and you can tell that they care like

but it's nice to hear the product team on here

conversing with the fans and Taking these questions

and taking them to heart and you can tell that

they care like they're fans, but they get paid

Yeah, I mean this is what I've said the last

few episodes that we've talked about say the

Transformers Tuesdays or the fan first Fridays

or whatever When I'm watching really good for

the franchise and I'm glad that he's where he's

at You can tell he puts a lot of heart and energy

into it And honestly, I would love to pick his

brain and to talk to him on all things transformers

if we could ever find a contact info Absolutely

So the next one that came up was can the legacy

Blitzwing turret turn all the way around like

the G1 toy so we can have the jet cockpit in

the back and after checking to see if he couldn't

be made into an undesirable poses the turret

can move 360 degrees in both bot mode and alt

mode. That's good because you never want your

bots to have undesirable Transformations protrusions

in the front of them Yeah So take it away. All

right, unlike classic Transformers toyline universe,

which used whichever molds were available Legacy

is all new molds for existing characters. How

do you pick which characters are put into the

legacy toyline? They have to go on several things

like the characteristics of the alt mode the

color scheme Budgeting as well as the designers

wants on top of that marketing wants to push

tier a characters such as optimus RC and mumblebee

and etc Okay, cool Which I can get that they

want to push to your a because they know they're

gonna sell like they're gonna sell out for the

most part although I've not like RC with shelf

warming and so was bumblebee. Yeah still is to

some taste like optimus pretty much if he's not

the cyberverse He pretty much sells out like

if he's if he's any type of like modern g1 or

for Cybertron or whatever You can't find him

like he's gone but I do love the fact that they're

revisiting old characters, you know existing

characters and giving them fresh updates new

molds something to look forward to like the Like

the recent toy reveal panel They they had tarantulas

show up which looked spectacular it was like

they took him right out of the show and Same

thing with J axis who came from the generation

to comic right and I was both of those I was

like, okay, they sold me like it's like I love

the G2 comic. My first introduction to Transformers

was actually through G .I. Joe. I had the G .I.

Joe comics and I got the crossover where they

introduced Generation 2 by having G1 Megatron

show up and get revamped with the new tank green

body and then it kind of went on from there.

So to me, like the G2 line, Machine Wars, Beast

Wars, those are kind of like my generation of

transformers as far as this stuff's concerned.

So like J -axis and Tarantulas. And seeing how

well they did with Tarantulas only proved that

when they get to Inferno and some of these later

beasts that are coming out this year, like the

Transmetal 2 Megatron, it sounds like we're going

to get some like actually good robot modes that...

Have previously never been seen, you know, I

mean like great face sculpting looking at tarantulas

He looks like they took him right out of the

show and I That gave me like between that and

terrorist or it gave me intense confidence that

they're gonna knock these next two out of the

park for Beast Wars and any future things that

they come out with and so knowing that they're

doing like this being the legacy line and them

having a variety of different Transformers from

different generations, although it's heavily

influenced by Beast Wars in Generation 2, with

some Transformers crime sprinkled in there. It

gives me good confidence that if they ever visit

other figures from Beast Wars or Beast Machines,

which Beast Machines was atrocious, it can only

go up from here. So it gives me confidence anyway

that that we have a decent team working on this

and even if they're a little bit light on the

paint colors Which I can paint myself if we get

the design, right? I'm happy. Yeah, absolutely

So they asked how did you decide on Cybertron

Metroplex as a Titan? They said the running theme

gimmick of the line are the energon weapons Which

if you've watched like pretty much all of them

except for tarantulas So because he's Beast Wars

and they're trying to be authentic although they

did give him his season two Transmetal weapon

as well as his season one hmm, which was kind

of nice and Nice little nod there and people

were like, you know, at least they got the right

weapon, you know, I'm like Cheetor where he didn't

So but Anyways with Metroplex. They said he's

a Titan that can mine all that energon while

this line does sell to collectors It is made

for children in mind and children love gimmicks

Although the amount of pre -orders for last week's

legacy toys crushed last year's numbers That's

awesome. That's awesome that that tells me that

the reveal like people knew about about half

of those that got revealed They saw the leaks

like tarantulas and j -axis and metroplex nobody

had a clue like like nobody had a clue j -axis

was even in the lineup but i mean they did but

they didn't know like what he was going to look

like right the authenticity that they gave all

of them uh and then the thing that stole the

show with metroplex for the beast wars fans anyways

if you look really tiny by his uh grinder at

the end of his weapon yeah there's poor little

inferno straight back with his butt jets completely

destroyed and twirling out of control with all

of his ant legs blown off and his mouth open.

But the colors and the detail on there, you can

tell they're going to knock Inferno out of the

park. And people are looking at it going, I hope

they don't retool Waspinator into them. And people

are like, well, the only original part of Tarantulas

was like, Very small section like the weapon.

Yeah, and they still made, you know a difference

from black or acne to tarantulas So I don't know

and he's gonna be a Voyager anyway, so it'd be

bigger I'm I'm very excited to see what they

do with that and I think that that definitely

stole the show from Metroplex But Metroplex is

frequently or freakishly tall Yes, I saw a comparison

with the original that released with the Cybertron

line and he's like almost two -thirds taller.

Yep. And he's like at least double the height

of Cybertron Optimus Prime, which is nice. Oh,

yeah. Yeah, that's so nice. So the next question

was, with the cost increase of the last few years,

will there continue to be a cost increase every

year? That might drive a lot of collectors and

parents to buy only what they or slash their

kids want and reduce impulse purchases, which

that's kind of my boat. Like, I would get more

of the characters. Like, I would love to get

an actual Galvatron that I've not mutilated into

a Megatron. Or a generation two Megatron that's

not a core class. I would like to get the one

that stands height -wise with Optimus Prime.

I would like to get Laser Prime. I mean, I'd

like to get some more of these leaders, but honestly,

like... The old wallet can't afford that, so

I have to pick and choose, and for me, Beast

Wars wins out. So anyways, their answer was,

due to the increased costs of production, raw

materials, transit over the last few years, retail

prices have risen across the board for all of

Hasbro products. Also, cardboard itself has gone

up substantially. Deluxe figures will be $24

.99 going forward, which... Is nuts because when

I started getting back into this they were like

$19 .99, $20 .99, $21 .99, $22 .99, now they're

$24 .99. So they've got about five bucks in a

year. Yeah, I remember when deluxes were anywhere

from $10 to $17. Well Steve, I remember when

deluxes when Beast Wars was out. They were between

$7 .99 and $9 .99. And basic figures were between

$4 .99 and $6 .99. Right. And I'm just talking

about like 10 years ago in 2012. Oh, yeah. As

high as they went was $17 .99. Yeah. So I asked

on Twitter and nobody responded to me. So I went

into the Transmissions Discord, the Transmissions

Podcast. I've chatted with the number one Cybertronian

beast, Daryl, and Big C, Charles, from that podcast.

And I asked the question of, can someone please

remind me what the actual sizes are of the size

classes in Transformers toys now? so whatever

they're currently doing now or that like in inches

is what I wanted somebody replied to me that

Deluxes are anywhere from five to five and a

half inch range Voyagers are seven inch in range

and leaders are nine inch in range now the reason

why I ask this is because I Wanted it Well, yes,

there's that I mean, you know, but It's like

that quote about the short guys with a big truck

Yes, yeah, so the reason why I asked this question

before we recorded this podcast so I could say

this on this podcast I Have and I haven't actually

measured it. I just know what funco says it is.

They call it a jumbo 10 -inch Figure I have the

jumbo 10 -inch sound wave figure which was a

GameStop exclusive, I paid just over $30 after

tax for a 10 -inch figure. Okay? They want us

to pay $24 .99 for a deluxe figure which is 5

to 5 .5 inches? Well, you can also consider the

engineering and the fact that they transformed.

Absolutely. No, I understand that. I get that.

But looking at the reaction figures the super

seven the reaction Let's not go there. I will

I will go into a rage. Don't yeah. Well, i'm

just saying It's there's those are insanely stupidly

priced. I will never buy one. They don't transform

They look they look like a plastic brick And

like I would sooner buy I'm like I would sooner

buy a Funko pop than I would a reaction so here

Because a fun yeah, because at least at least

a Funko Would be fun compared to it and I would

get like ten times the amount of plastic Yeah

compared to those stupid reaction figures were

like I the transformer like I don't care like

the red figures I'll those I'm like, okay, they're

decently sized. They're still about like Anywhere

from like six to ten inches and yeah, they don't

transform but they come with extra stuff. So

like those I'm like If the right figure came

along, I would probably splurge and get it, but

I haven't seen the right figure come along yet.

I've been very tempted for some of them, but

I've not picked up. Yeah, I mean, like right

now, like we mentioned a while ago, I actually

have it saved in my Amazon now. But the Jada

Toys Transformers 18 pack, the diecast, this

is diecast. This is 18 minifigures that are diecast

on Amazon is just. After whatever shipping, it's

just under $40 for 18 diecast 18 diecast figurines.

Yes, they don't transform. But, I mean, that's

- But if you're just wanting the representation

though of the - Right, no, yeah. You can't drop

on the floor and shatter. Yeah, exactly. So,

I mean, I understand why. I understand the whole

tooling and the whole bits about the engineering

and the fact that Deluxes and Voyagers and Leaders

and Titans and Commander Class and whatever other

things you want to call them. I understand that

they are all - have multiple facets to go into

it, but That price for a five to five that I

figure So so we're dealing with I mean we have

quarter figures which are gonna be $12 .99 now

Mm -hmm, so they've doubled in price from their

original Basic design. Yeah, the the deluxe is

let's just say that they were like $11 .99 just

for sake of it. So they've doubled in price Yeah,

I mean granted I'm talking like 20 years ago.

Yeah But there's also a size difference because

if I put a modern Deluxe next to one from the

90s like my cheetor my cheetor from the 90s is

Almost the size of a Voyager now Mm -hmm, and

my basic iguanas from the 90s Is taller by a

head than core rat trap and has you know? And

so like, I mean, there's a difference in some

of these, you know, like the Voyagers, they're

about a head shorter than the Voyager, than the

old Voyagers, which somehow that name didn't

change, besides Deluxe. And then, or they were

Megas, they were Megas back then. And then the

Leader class, which are 52 to 56 .99 now instead

of 49 .99, which they were like a year ago, those

were Ultras and they were 20 bucks. and there

was no like supreme class was 50 which is basically

our commander class now yeah which is like 90

and then they didn't have titan back then yeah

i mean for g1 technically but yeah i mean in

the class or commander i'll never buy any of

them because i can't afford them like once they

hit past leader i'm like i gotta write them off

The only commander class figure I would ever

want is Rodimus and yeah, but that's your favorite

so that yeah Yeah, yeah, if there's one that

goes beyond like I was talking about this on

all spark and I know it's kind of going off tangent

on the pricing thing but if If they ever came

off with and I don't know is TFW is duck doing

this on their forum But if they ever came out

with a playset Beast Wars, you know, I mean,

I know the 3d printers are doing it and everything

and I know that they're You're I mean you're

paying for it. It's because it's one guy, you

know, it's not a bulk thing so and I'm not saying

Hasbro won't do the same thing if they did it

but Just for the sake of it. They're talking

about the fact that Hasbro puts little cookie

cutter, you know ideas in their poster art for

things so like when They had the arc, they had

Galvatron, and they had Waspinator, and things

show up in the arc. And then they came out with

them, or the arc showed up in somebody else's

arc, and they came out with an arc that transforms.

And now they've got the Nemesis that shows up

in Metroplex's arc, as well as Inferno. We know

they're making an Inferno, but Nemesis is probably

next year's Titan. Probably, yeah. And they're

talking about the fact that They may eventually

do an axel on in a dark side. And people are

like speculating on, you know, if they make them

into a beast or a robot or, you know, whatever.

And, you know, call one Sentinel and the other

one, you know, something else. But, or if they

should not do that and just make the interior

of the bases, like, you know, the bridge of both

ships, you know, and then have, you know, the

CR tank and the restoration chamber and the,

you know, the The stasis pods like I would love

for an official stasis pod to come out Yeah at

retail, you know or a generation select thing,

you know I mean these these are ideas that you

know, if you're talking kids love gimmicks Like

they are with with Metroplex. Yeah, these are

gimmicks. I wanted 25 years ago Yeah, like I

was dying for them. I was like, okay Ninja Turtles

has the sewer system and the technodrome Batman

had the various vehicles as well as Bad cave

having the bat cave Why doesn't transformers

with robots, you know, which most of them were

made in various sizes or somewhere smaller? Why

didn't they have a base? You know Star Trek had

the Enterprise had the transporter room had you

know engineering why you know again These are

like things that went through my head as a kid.

I'm like I had all these other sets You know,

I had GI Joe headquarters. Why doesn't transformers

have their own? I think the reason is, is because,

and I could be completely wrong and I'm just

going off of what I know in the last 42 years

of my life, Transformers... They never really

advertised any bases They never really made any

bases because the bots could transform from robot

to vehicle To get to and from places and they

wanted you to use your own imagination I could

be possibly very wrong in saying this but let's

face all of the 80s toys 90s toys and whatever

They were to increase our imaginations. Yeah,

and I and I'm totally for that however when i

was a kid i had to build my base and my stasis

pods out of legos yeah i'm not saying that they

shouldn't do it i would love for them to do it

they look terribly ugly and the guys couldn't

you know i mean they were like oversized because

they didn't have enough legos to build a wall

and so like my kids like i've built them a lego

stasis pod which is infinitely better than what

i had as a kid and and you know i've built them

a you know a base you know i've helped my son

build a base out of cardboard and so like even

at my mom's like the rescue bots have their own

base that you can buy yeah like so i'm i'm a

little confused like i i can see that going all

out in it but i would love to see them put some

effort towards it or you know like a star wars

did i mean and it's not for everybody it's not

But if you put it as like a generation select

thing where it's like a pre -order on on you

know on Amazon Hasbro pulse on BBTS, you know

these places I'm fairly positive that if they

said all right We're gonna have a generation

select stasis pot and it's gonna fit up to a

Voyager class figure I guarantee you Most of

us would order at least one order like 10 Not

me. I would order one. I would be perfectly happy

for one. I mean, for your collecting, for your

fandom that you love, you would order two because

you would want an Axelon and a Dark Side. If

they made those two as... Well yeah, if they

came out with the bases, I would, depending on

cost, I would definitely order, like as if it

was like half the bridge, it would be sufficient.

Like you don't need the whole thing. I would

just, you know, enough to have, you know, a couple

of maybe the floating things in the Predbase,

the restoration chamber and Megatron's chair,

you know, with a display for Waspinator to get

zapped by Starscream or, you know, and then on

the maximal side, maybe like two of the computer

terminals, the elevator, the table and the CR

chamber, you know, just something simple, you

know, I can live with that. And then like a stasis

pod, like those I would definitely like go for

like, May not buy the bridges like depending

on how much they cost but if you could buy like

elements of them and kind of together yourself,

you know, because if you want all five terminals

in the maximal base you can do it but I I would

love a stasis pot I would love the you know,

the center table with the chairs to the the maximal

base, you know Megatron's chair and I know you

can get them 3d printed but it's It's still not

the same Like being able to go out to the store

and get it or order it through Hasbro and have

it sent to your house, already assembled, already

ready. It's ready for your display. But I don't

see them doing it because they have so many 3D

printer people and it's a cost thing. But yeah,

I don't know. For gimmicks, I'd love to see some

of these things take fruit with the fandom. Yeah,

absolutely. I'm gonna skip the Netflix versus

siege sound wave because people have heard that

question Yeah, so with the pandemic it seemed

that most store exclusives in the Earthrise line

were impossible to find coneheads ironhide ratchet

prowl Bumblebee, etc. We're all sold out everywhere

the No, me either. I was looking too, because

I wanted Ironhide. Stores have gone through some

effort to prevent bots from ordering up all of

the exclusives in the past two years. So hopefully

that will improve things in the future. Okay,

as much as we are praising Hasbro, I'm sorry,

that's a standard... That's a cop -out answer.

Yeah, that's a cop -out answer. That's a PR answer

to say, yeah, we're working on it, but yeah,

it's gonna happen. Mm -hmm. It was definitely

scalpers because the prices were going for two

to four times the amount that it would cost in

the store. Oh, yeah. Absolutely. All right. Take

it away, sir. So, with open boxes without plastic,

won't the damaged bots with missing heads create

more waste? Answer. Only smaller size toys will

have open boxes, as the toys with open boxes

are shown to be more attractive to kids. than

a render photo on the box. The larger toys will

have full art boxes to protect the toys. In other

words, if it's more than $35, it's going to be

completely caged in a box. If it's a basic figure,

like a core figure, it's going to be enclosed

in plastic. If it's a deluxe or a Voyager, expect

it to be in an open box case. And I have actually

seen a bulkhead missing a head. Yep, we have.

And I was like, You know, I mean and I've seen

like like I needed a kingdom Megatron head like

no other recently Yeah, and I've been looking

for you know a decent price because I was just

gonna buy a Megatron if I needed to but I really

didn't want the figure again It's not It's not

a big Like I saw one with an oak like a busted

open plastic and I was like, oh it was so easy

to pop that head right here Because all you have

to do is you stick a blunt instrument behind

his head and you can wiggle it and it's Separates

the head because there's no screw on the head

which was not because Galvatron had a screw to

hold his head together Megatron did not and But

I did the proper thing I found somebody with

a junker and I bought it And I felt so much better

about it, but like I couldn't bring myself to

steal like it's just Yeah, no, no more of these

these money issues with the the cost going up

because you have some idiot that's like I'm gonna

pop the heads and charge 20 bucks for the head

It's like no buy the figure and if you want to

part it apart, you know and sell it For insane

prices for all of it, you know, just buy the

whole figure and cut You know take them apart

and sell each part individually and then you'll

make way more than what you bought it for That's

right. Number eight folks thou shalt not steal

exactly Like, I have some freaking decency. Like,

I don't understand people. Me either. Like, yeah.

I mean, I wanted to save money on the figure,

but I didn't, you know, I wasn't gonna steal

it either. Like, I found a really good deal.

I found a really good deal. Somebody paid, I

paid $12 for it, shipped, and I was ecstatic

that it showed up at my house. And I didn't have

the rest of the figure wasting space. Like, I

do that skywarp. Will combiner wars limbs work

with legacy combiners? Answer the connectors

are similar but different the new connectors

have an extra locking tab that holds them into

place Well, you could put the combiner wars limbs

into the legs They wouldn't be as secure and

the arms would definitely fall out of the shoulder

Wait, okay really quickly they change the sizing

like even the even the pegs where they their

hands hold onto things are different sizes in

War for Cybertron in Legacy versus Combiner Wars

because I attempted to use some Transformers

Prime and some some Combiner Wars stuff in collaboration

with my my kingdom Galvatron and Things just

were not meshing very well at all and I had to

do some creative modifications Yeah, but yeah,

I mean they're gonna change things. Yeah, I mean

that's the thing like I don't know, and I'm not

insulting the person or persons or website that

asked this question. It's a good question. My

thing is, and I'm sure Hasbro's thing would be

is, why do you want an eight -year -old toy to

fit in the current... Well, not only that, but

they're going for a totally different aesthetic.

Yeah, exactly. Like, Combiner Wars had... for

better or worse, different aesthetics. And there

were certain aspects of it, like in Combiner

Wars and Titans Return and Power of the Primes,

certain gimmicks that they all had that, yes,

some were desirable and others were not. Like,

I managed to get a Legends, which is core, class

shockwave, which transforms into the gun, which

actually looks perfect for my custom Dawn of

Future Past Megatron. and I was able to take

that combiner wars figure and make it work and

it fits the size like the gun everything like

everything's perfect with it but if you're doing

a combiner you're not doing it to be cheap yeah

you're doing it to complete it and that's like

it combiner is not cheap at all no so if you're

getting a combiner just do it right Yeah, exactly

So will there be weapon accessory packs in the

future especially for already released figures

that don't have their iconic weapons And they

said nothing has currently been announced for

that but anything can happen in other words Uh,

the next two questions that I have are basically

simple answer questions. We don't have to discuss

too much into these, but any chance of an art

book of the design work that has been shown off

on Instagram, not something that they had looked

into, but not something they had thought of,

but they like the idea of, and will we see the

Takara Armada Optimus again? We will look into

it. And then the bigger question in this part

of the section is what was the inspiration for

Jehaxis? Mark worked on Thrilling 30 Figure and

wanted to make a more faithful rendition. Mark

loves the character and even bought some of the

many, many -gallon artwork. Now that Jayaxis

has been made, expect to see Machine Wars in

the future as Mark brings it up in all the meetings.

Haha! There you go, folks. Machine Wars matters.

Yeah, and what's funny is Machine Wars started

as a KB Toys exclusive, which was rejected Generation

2. and European Generation 2 Transformers. And

so I'm very thrilled about that because I liked

Machine Wars, but I also grew up on the G2, the

Beast Wars, and Machine Wars. So those three

to me are very important. I would love to see

a Machine Wars cartoon and comic because they

could play with the Mythos and do anything they

want with it and have it totally separated from

Generation 1. Would love to see that nothing

like no like no other and So I'm very excited

about machine wars being in the fold Absolutely

Next up next next up is Does Metroplex have any

interplay with the old lines? It does have a

five millimeter and three millimeter part port

for weapons and blast effects But it doesn't

have new mini con ports or cyber keys. It can

connect in city mode to Omega Supreme That is

cool, which is cool And then it says, was Metroplex's

partner Drillbit ever considered? Drillbit was

in the initial plans but was cut early on for

budget reasons. He could make a good core class

figure later on though. Very cool, very cool.

With the delay of the Rise of the Beasts, did

that affect your tour release plans at all? Now

this is a question I would have asked them first

thing because, and I know it's the way that these

are ordered and whatever else, but Like, that

would have been the one question I would have

come up with. No, the legacy line will continue

as a plan, as planned, and as the Studio Series

line that was slated for the following year will

now come out at the same time as the film. So,

okay, good. I never said that Hasbro never had

a plan. We just didn't know about the plan, so

I'm glad. Yeah, it's all the power of the plan.

Yeah, exactly. I'm glad that, you know, we're

learning what this plan is and what they're going

to be doing. It's very, very cool. As much as

we do enjoy these virtual roundtables and fan

-first whatevers, will you be returning to in

-person events? Hasbro is looking into returning

to in -person events, but don't expect anything

until at least the fall. As Devastator outside

my window decides to go dumpster diving. I thought

it was Grimlock jumping on Devastator. That?

Yeah. Or kicking Unicron's butt. Yeah. Anyways,

with the energon weapons combining, why is there

no mention of it in the packaging? And then they

said, not enough space to write it in five languages.

And same almost kind of plays into this too.

Will the bios get more detail in the future?

Probably not, as they need to be translated into

27 languages and that costs a lot of money, which...

Explains why the tech specs disappeared a long

time ago Very very true, which I'm very sad about

the loss of tech specs, but honestly, I would

love to see it go to their website Yeah, I mean

that okay, so I know they can't afford it on

the box and I get it like but I mean I guess

this kind of plays into a lot of money things

still but Right, but but here's the thing it

might be cheaper Yeah so they have this new QR

code like we live in an online world now folks

we live in a QR code world so my thinking would

be if you're gonna have a QR code on boxes. Maybe

that's something that the parents of the kids

can scan on their phone. Pull up whatever insert,

whatever Hasbro website here, and maybe that

has something on it for the kids for tech specs

or something. I don't know. I mean, if it's going

to be on the box anyway. Yeah, I just I miss

tech specs, but we all miss them, but I understand

that they are needed, so I get it. Yeah. Will

we see the weaponizers again? They went into

a portal and disappeared. They might reappear

one day. No, leave them in that unknown portal,

please. No more weaponizers. True. Will there

be more shattered glass mini -comics? There are

five parts of the comic and Ultra Magnus will

have the next part. Also, that skull head was

designed in the original mold by John Warren

years ago. Nice. Cool. I'm excited about this

next section. Yes. Yes. Will we get trans medals

in the future? Because the original thoughts

were no. No. And I was, when I saw the news,

I was like, oh, you're killing me, people. You're

killing me. I'm like, you know, because they

said that they talk a lot about trans metals.

They constantly talk about stuff like that. The

VAC metal is getting harder and harder to do.

So finding the right process to give the toys

the right look, you know. is a good chunk of

it, but they might not be vacuum metal due to

the flaking issues. And I'm taking some of this

from TFU because they kind of mentioned it on

their feed and Twitter. And it says that they're

definitely talking preferences for trans metals

right now. And the general consensus on the call

is that we'd be fine without vacuum metal. back

metal for transformers for new trans metals um

like that's the general fan consensus is like

dump the vac metal just give us metallic shiny

paint yeah that doesn't flake off like i use

metallic paints when i paint my my robots and

honestly i've painted like the the gold on my

trans metal megatron that i have which it's a

brick it's painted it because it's it's an original

megatron that's Got the the plastic syndrome

issue where he shatters when you touch the browns

So I repainted the entire figure with metallic

paints like silver metallic to cover up the grays

and the gold metallic to cover up the kind of

beige ish gold Color that they had on it and

honestly like the shiny paints look spectacular

on the figure So I would be perfectly fine with

seeing them replace, you know, the back metal

with metallic paints, you know, because as long

as they can get the mold correct and get it like

a similar look style, as long as they don't go

bland like they did with Power of the Primes,

Optimus Primal or Optimal Optimus, because...

While I enjoy the fact that they revisited him,

they gave him a better head sculpt than the original

toy. They gave him some ankle tilts. They gave

him a couple of new features. You know, the cannons

could be removed, although I would have preferred

they retracted. And I love the fact that you

could kind of pop Primal out of there and have

two figures in one. But the paint colors were

so bland and dull on it because it didn't have

a metallic paint. Like, you can do without back

metal if you do metallic paint. And I felt that

that was the only weakness to that figure, which

when I was looking to re -obtain an optimal optimus,

it was like, do I get the original? Do I get

the Trans Art? Or do I get the Power of the Primes?

And the Power of the Primes, for the completeness

of the figure, I could have got the most cheapest.

However, he was missing the fourth mode, like

you couldn't do the tank mode. and you went ahead

and buy an upgrade kit for like almost as much

as the figure and then you need reprolabels like

toy hacks labels to give them the correct colorations

in a lot of areas because they skimped on paint

and then uh and then it added metallic paint

to areas by using the stickers and so i was like

i really want to get that one and so i went with

an original optimal which i found near complete

missing like two bullets and a his gun which

I had for a time and then I sold it for more

than what I bought it for and then I was able

to get the trans art which is like pristine and

it's it does everything that the show did and

looks exactly like the show so for me like my

preference like yes I do love the back metal

but I understand that it flakes and I really

don't want to pay a lot for a figure that's gonna

self -destruct exactly so so if they put metallic

paints on it I feel like it would be a nice compromise

to give it that shine in that difference, but

allow it to be still a transmetal on a new product.

Right. Absolutely, yeah. So, the other question

was, is Toranchalist a remold of Black Arachnia?

And people were losing their mind over this one.

And it's like, he's a male. It's like, Black

Arachnia is female. And they have definite differences

in body appearance. It's not a remold there,

guys. Like everything was totally different and

so they said the only only the gun is reused

the rest is all new Uh Who did the artwork for

bot bots chris hicks did a lot of it the netflix

series peaked at number nine on netflix So they

have a top 10 show. Yay nice Because I am sorry

I will cut this part out in the editing but Tarantulas

black arachnia Transantulas? Transeret? No! Anyway.

Next. Does the combiner limbs splitting in half

make them easier to repurpose? For example, Dragstift

or Mirage? An interesting idea, but the way the

molds are, they are too intricate and not done

by halves, so no. And then, any chance of an

energon Optimus Prime retool of Motor Master?

They are working on a retool for Motor Master,

but no details for now. In other words, we're

working on something awesome. We're not going

to tell you what it is. Exactly. And then there

was some other miscellaneous information discussed.

Metroplex excavator tool ratchets when spinning

and it doesn't open up. It does disconnect from

the crane though. Metroplex's head has a wielding

mask on the back side of it. Toy sizes affects

what goes into each wave as well. For example,

if one wave has a bulky deluxe, then it will

have a smaller one too. Mark worked on bot bots

and encouraged us to get the series six toys,

especially the awesome pizza race car. I have

to say, and I know you don't want to watch past

the first episode, but that race, the The quote

-unquote soapbox race episode was so freakin'

cool. Menazar has molded detail for his blasters

underneath his forearms. Lots to digest in this

episode and this content. There's so much positive

going around. Every time they do something like

this, I feel excited for being a Transformers

fan. Absolutely, I mean even though I'm not Even

though I'm not on the panel I feel included because

people are asking questions I would ask about

certain things exactly and even though I am not

really buying Transformers figures right now

I Love so I shared from the transformers page

to our all things transformers page and other

pages that I manage on Facebook like the the

reveals and the pictures of the reveals those

background, you know, you know what I'm talking

about the background did pictures that they should

like Anytime that happens. I am all I'm like,

ooh, I even though I'll probably never buy it.

I love seeing this This is amazing. So yeah,

no absolutely has bro Keep doing what you're

doing and giving us the awesome. Oh, yeah, totally

So yeah, I mean that about concludes everything

that we've got in this episode. I hope in the

future that we can get it included and then I

can ask them about Beast Machines Megatron and

his cloak. Or an official Dawn of Future Past

line. Because as they've shown in the past, exclusives

mean nothing from BotCon. Because they're re

-releasing a lot of them in the new molds. Sandstorm,

the Scorponok repaint, and some of these other

ones. They're re -releasing repaints of things

they made at BotCon as just regular old characters.

So I would love to see the Donna Future Past

Beast Wars cast get released with their bodies,

updated versions of them from the comic. And

most notably, the one I'm doing a custom on,

just so I can have both. Yeah, that's not self

-serving at all Because I want the Megatron without

the armor I could buy these scatter shot the

Cybertron scatter shot for under I think I can

get it for 30 like 20 bucks and I could easily

repaint that and I have the original Beast Wars

Megatron head that I could pop on there and it

would fit the they would fit the mold and so

I've toyed with the idea, but I'm like, I don't

really care enough, you know, to do that. I prefer

the one without the armor anyway. But it would

be kind of funny too because the other ones goes

for like three grand or four grand on eBay and,

you know, mine would not, but it would go for

much less because people would want it. Anyways,

yeah, so I'm very excited about all this news,

especially the transmedals and the machine wars

information that was dropped in this one. I love

how transparent they're being. I can't wait for

more of the reveals that come, like Inferno and

Transmetal 2 Megatron, and seeing what else they

sneak in these next lineups, because I know some

of them are repacks of original figures with

the new box, kind of like Hot Rod and Galvatron.

But I'm excited to see what they do with some

of the figures we haven't seen yet. and some

of the ones that they may sneak in there just

to see the details that we're gonna get. So I'm

very excited and looking forward to it and more

news and hopefully in the future we can join

them on these fan calls. Absolutely, that would

be awesome because I know at least three people

that are on the calls. So do I. Yeah, some of

them were like, how come you guys aren't on it

and Asgrove doesn't talk to us? Apparently we

said something or did something or we did Transformers

Prime and rescue bots when this came out because

they're the ones that reached out about us interviewing

people. Yeah, so Yeah, neither here nor there

will continue to soldier on and I would just

love to have there to be included in the conversation,

but Thank you all for joining us here on All

Things Transformers. If you'd like to get in

contact with us or leave feedback for the show,

there are several ways to do so. But one of the

main ones is, visit us on the website, keepcastradio

.com, where you can listen to and comment on

all of your favorite content. You can follow

us on Twitter, at AllThingsTFB3, and myself at

SCP -21. I'm at TF2 and Mike. So for now, I've

been Steve Megatron with... TFGO and Mike. Sing,

transform and transcend and join us again next

time on All Things Transformers. What's going

on around here? Yes. I wish to speak to my lawyer.