Hasbro's Transformation Sound, Devastator, and Rising Prices!

Sentinel Online. Now loading All Things Transformers.

Oh, and welcome to... things transformers i'm

your host steve megatron and joining me on this

adventure into the transformers fandom is tfg1

mike i'm mad as hell i'm not gonna take it anymore

i like that quote it's better than daring to

be stupid um oh wait i mean this is what do and

do not trust my google feed at times is the google

feed it on phones on the google phones is like

trust but verified like you always have to verify

it and okay image comics i trust them disney

i don't necessarily trust them but it is what

it is uh Okay, that's an ad for Five Below. Android

Police, I trust them. Combook .com, that's kind

of sketchy. Yahoo, okay, fine. But the point

is, if I scroll down far enough on my Google

feed on my Pixel 7 Pro, I know I'm going to run

into a website where it's going to be something.

That I don't trust or I've never heard of. Kind

of like how a certain website never had anything

covered. Because, you know, they ain't got that

covered. Yeah. Not factually anyway. True. And

I came across this. In the last two weeks. I

don't remember without going to our website and

checking when the last episode was, because I

know somebody asked us recently, I forget where

might've been on our Facebook page might've been

on Twitter. I don't know. Asked us when the next

episode of this podcast was going to be. I forget

when the last one was. I think it was sometime

in August. I think it might've been August 5th

or August 8th or August. It was sometime after

the anniversary of the show because we did 17

years of all things Transformers. I know that

was the part of the title of the last episode

of the podcast. The point is, what are you sucking

on? Vapes? Nothing. Okay, that was weird. That

was a weird noise. It reminds me of the old basement

days in Michigan. Oh, boy. Anyway, no, seriously,

you remember those days, right? Yes. Okay. Sadly.

Okay, good. Heaven forbid we forget our roots

and where we came from, folks. So, anyway, the

last two weeks, when I've looked through my Google

feed, I've just been... kind of like disgruntled

and dejected and discouraged with some of the

stuff one of them was the fact that whatever

website it was i don't even i can't even give

credit but it was a website that basically basically

gave a headline of a disney plus story of disney

plus doing away with something this era of disney

is ending that was part of the headline seven

and a half paragraphs into the story i get to

the point of what the point of the headline was

the start of the story was in 2019 disney and

i get it you have to write some of these websites

have to write these stories like no one has ever

read the story no one knows the history of disney

plus etc etc etc but if you have a pulse if you

live in a place with an internet connection if

you don't live in bum freak nowhere in the middle

of the place where you don't get an internet

connection i get it whatever but like oh my god

don't bury write a story where you have that

kind of a title that should be the answer to

the title of the story like what everyone wants

to know like the answer to the title of the story

give us that in the first paragraph and then

go into the history like don't have us read seven

and a half paragraphs to get us to the point

and the point of the story was the kind of how

a story that i'll talk about on a different show

later that we do here at the geek cast radio

network uh the same kind of story but it was

about hulu but anyway the point is is that stories

make my head hurt and this first story that we're

not really gonna spend all that amount of time

on is it makes my head hurt because how does

cbr get these people to write these stories like

so i will say valnet is crap um yeah so i don't

know how these guys are staying employed other

than it's just lowest common denominator articles

and they i mean i think they're 500 word slop

i think that's what it is They're paid a flat

of like $15 to $20 freelance per article. And

I've applied to write for them before. And they

have a pretty crappy track record as far as like

writing for them. They do have, at least on paper,

it looks like that they're... you know like this

individual that wrote a bunch of transformers

material and it's like i know a bunch about transformers

and that's my expertise or whatever on this you

know but it looks more like he's good at communications

creative writing and then like freelance writer

and marketing yeah that's what his yeah which

i'm not gonna name drop because i'm not gonna

be that person but at the same time i've looked

i've looked at the majority of the guys articles

and they're all they're all touches on g1 transformers

whenever he brings it up and you know i i was

just i'm going through like pages and pages and

pages of his crap uh and he's written a plethora

like there's it looks like he has to write six

or seven articles per day oh my god uh and that's

probably the only reason that they make money

the more crap you churn out the more money you

make and you know the busier they keep you yep

and i i've i've been looking at the majority

of his stuff and he more i mean it depends on

superheroes but he keeps going back to g1 yeah

on a lot of his stuff or like uh he'll he'll

do some anime uh some of his things i do agree

with like he's got you know one for august where

it's like sorry transformers fans michael bay's

return will kill the transformers franchise yeah

uh but then there's other articles where it's

yeah they're they're talking about bugling yeah

well he kind of goes off in these weird tangents

of things and talks about things that aren't

even part of it like one of them's like latest

transformers release adds a new dino bot to the

g1 team but it's it buries the lead and it's

basically talking about the new age toys figure

um without explicitly like saying that's what

it does but then there's like not a it's He goes

from that, and then he goes into talking about,

you know, the Dinobots, and then goes into talking

about Transformers Fall of Cybertron video game.

And then, you know, Volcanicus with Big Bad Toy

Store. Right. It's all over the place. And then

we get things like... there there's you know

transformers goes back to the future with surprise

us 40th anniversary release no they released

they released that figure gigawatt years ago

it's not surprising they released it years ago

yeah just like some of the other earthrise figures

that came out you know he's got a bunch of earthrise

toys listed you know sunstreaker and and ramjet

uh earth rust i'm sorry and it's i don't know

i'm just so i'm not impressed with a lot of the

stuff i mean there's you know returns to g1 returns

to g1 returns to g1 these seem to be like the

trend with his uh with his articles is returning

to g1 it's like dude g1 never left yeah exactly

they've been rebooting g1 for years yeah like

literally for years it's not even that they're

rebooting it because they haven't really when

it comes to the toys specifically because that's

what this article is and we're not even going

to really get into this article we're just going

to talk about the the headline thing and we're

like we're going to actually go to a transformers

website uh and discuss this but basically the

article i found was nearly 40 years later transformers

returns to g1 with a new release for its most

aided autobot and it's basically him talking

about them releasing a new outback and a new

wheelie and the wheelie is based on the g1 toy

design version of of wheelie but i saw that headline

and i'm like transformers returns to g1 It's

never freaking left G1 in 41 years. G1 is the

backbone. It's always been the backbone. It's

what Hasbro leans on the most. It's what makes

them... Maybe I should or should not say this.

The most money. It's what gets most fanboys coming

back most of the time. Granted, Beast Wars is

the... the guardian savior of of the overall

franchise because without beast wars in 1996

there would not be what we have now today in

2025 without beast wars but it just when i saw

this i'm like okay comicbookresources .com who

would have you hired to write this slop because

that's not even an accurate title like yeah no

like i don't know like i hit maybe four articles

every seven years on comic book resources that

And I'm exaggerating there, but maybe like seriously,

four articles on CBR that maybe I like. It's

very rare. And it just, I don't know, man. I

don't know. I don't go to obviously we're not

going to come up with resources for Transformers

articles. We're not going there for Transformers

news, but it just and again, this popped up in

my Google feed. I guarantee you these articles,

these types of articles on this website specifically

are being written for the person that is not

that does not know about Transformers news websites.

This is for the general public. This is for the

person that knows nothing about Transformers

kind of thing. But it's just. so infuriating

as a transformers fan as a transformers person

to see this and it's like do you not have a clue

what in the hell you're talking about like really

i i don't know i don't know mr bothan like i

don't know But anyway, yeah, articles titling,

just come on, people, do better. The actual news

starts out with Hasbro applying for the Transformation

Sound Trademark. Boy, I'm glad they did that.

So the latest filing with the United States Patent

and Trademark Office stands out as particularly...

unusual compared to the typical submissions yeah

it's a sound effect yeah it's the sound effect

for trademark official trade yep yep yep yep

yep hey i love that they're doing it though because

if they didn't do it, somebody would come across

and steal it and try to say it was theirs. And

even though everybody and their uncle should

know that that's the transformer sound effect.

Well, I'm kind of surprised in a sense, because

you would think they would have done this ages

ago. Like I. I just recently trademarked Geekcast

Radio Network and altered geek. And it's for

a conglomerate like them, it's not expensive.

For someone like me, it is. Yeah. So I'm surprised

it took them this long to get the transformation

sound trademarked. Yeah, I'm surprised this isn't

Hasbro renews the trademark. for the transformation

sound not applies or yeah this is a an application

for it that's crazy so they literally they make

you they make you register for everything oh

yeah like you you literally have to pay if you

want like an image trademarked if you want the

information the title the sound effect you know

whatever So I'm surprised that it's taken this

long, but I think good on them because otherwise,

you know, monster energy drinks will steal it.

Yes. I'm not bitter. You're a, you're a bitter.

Yes. You're, you're, you're bitter. Although

I did find out that they don't actually own it.

Oh, that's nice. Yeah, I, I did. They, I think

it was registered. And then I think that something

came up. where they thought it was going to be

oh yeah um yeah so they own the domain which

is why i which is why i don't let go of yes of

all things transformers .com and things like

that because i'm like but they they do have i

mean they still have the bus the the beast unleashed

you know monster variety pack or whatever in

which it's it's six percent liquor um they still

have it and it still looks like the beast wars

logo or it looks like the beast unleashed i mean

they even took the unleashed the beast in you

oh you bastards yeah it says tm which means they

don't own it right yeah it would have an r with

a circle around it if they owned it yeah uh But

yeah, so, so there's that, but I've, I've started

to see it just called the beast on a lot of their

newer marketing and the unleashed part has been

dropped. Yay. So yeah. Yeah. Hmm. Interesting.

Anyways, anyway, I think it's great that Hasbro

is doing this and, uh, absolutely. Uh, it, it

definitely is deserved. It's, it's a long time

coming. Yeah. 100%. All right. So apparently

we have a Devastator Appreciation. Share your

picks and thoughts. This is apparently they're

trying out something new. This was posted on

October 3rd. This is not breaking news, but rather

a way to highlight some recent cool toys. Yada,

yada, yada. So basically this is just an image

drop for TFW 2005 where various people have dropped

various images of Devastator with other Transformers

within the line kind of thing of him with other

Decepticons, just other shots of him. We're only

going to talk about this for half a second only

because it's just photos, but it just shows you

the scale of him. The new commander class, leader

class, super superior. The new Devastator guy.

He looks great next to all the other Decepticons.

He looks awesome. I love this shot. Yeah. Of

all these figures. Yeah. Looks so good. Yeah.

I mean, you can tell some of these are not. yeah

series 86 which is unfortunate yeah but like

like blitzwing looks fine enough yeah uh the

jets look horribly out of place yeah they do

um the insecticons look fine the jets are are

the biggest outliers like it's like you couldn't

come together and have the studio series 86 versions

of these guys uh well I mean, these are fan images,

so I don't know. I know, but I'm just saying

like, I mean, it's, it's a great shot regardless.

Yeah. Uh, I love the Megatron. Yes. That's even

without like a repro labels or toy hacks or whatever.

It's, it looks way better than the prime did.

Yeah. So, yeah, I, I love the shot and, uh, devastator

is pretty cool i love that they're remastering

all of these combiners finally and giving them

a proper deco yep for the studio series line

and it's so cool yeah they just it just looks

epic uh and they look like they're not as clunky

as the the war for cyber or the um not war for

cybertron but the uh fall of cybertron no it's

the the machinima series oh the prime wars trilogy

the prime wars combined wars they don't look

as clunky as those figures like because my son

has the defensor yep and it's it's definitely

better than the original toys but it's it's very

clunky looking and kind of feeling so these these

look a lot better i think with the anniversaries

that have come up between 2024 and 2026 now that's

coming, I think they've finally hit their stride.

I think that they've finally got to the point

of, especially with Studio Series 86, I think

that they've finally gotten to the point of,

hey, let's actually do these right. Again, going

back to G1 is the bread and butter of why G1

has never gone away. They want us to have and

they want to make for us. And you can listen

to Evan and Mark and everybody else on the design

team. They want to make for us the best versions

of these classic characters that they can make

for us. And that Devastator is freaking amazing.

Even if even the six individual pieces, all of

those characters, every video review, every video

I've seen on YouTube of the individual Constructicons,

they all look great. Every single one of them.

So, yeah. Absolutely love it. I only brought

the Wonderfest Shanghai 2025 Takara Tomy T -Spark

booth images up because it's got images of Missing

Link, Nemesis Prime, Ultra Magnus, MPG -16 Nucleon

Quest Convoy. Atomos Machinima Predaking and

MPG -17 style Gen Optimus Prime. The only thing

I was really curious about was how they were

going to do Nemesis. Ultra Magnus looks cool.

He kind of looks like the old Generation 1 one.

It's a re -release. Oh, it's a re -release. Okay,

well. nemesis prime is just essentially i think

a repaint of the other one that they did yeah

it's it's a repaint of the old original g1 toy

of of optimus prime however this is the uh the

more articulated version yep with the hands that

fold into the wrist and he he's got ankle joints

and uh i still like is is much i mean i used

to have the original g1 prime like the original

original and had i ever seen it uh this this

newer version in the store i probably would have

picked it up uh like it's not one that i just

have to have it was just if i was like if i'd

seen it i probably would have picked it up i

see a ton of the uh transformers devastation

deluxe optimus prime everywhere like nobody wants

it but this one i know this you know not this

color of it but the the other one i'd never seen

it in the store oddly enough and i think it's

just kind of neat that they they gave it the

nemesis because i guarantee it's not metal oh

it doesn't look metal unfortunately well the

the legs and the you know the exhaust piece and

then the the grill and the bumper it's not yeah

it's vac metal yeah so it's like why can't you

give us transmetals buddy i mean i'm being for

real like i know you if you could put vac metal

on this stuff because i know it's not diecast

yeah no there's no way it's diecast because the

original toy was pretty much all diecast and

this is not diecast so if they can do vac metal

on a 24 toy there's no reason why we aren't getting

beast wars updated figures with vac metal I'm

just saying. Poor Steve, he wants his VAC medal.

Well, I would like to see them, with the anniversary,

revisit Transmetal Megatron, because we've gotten

Transmetal 2, we've gotten, you know, base with

the Kingdom. We've gotten the same thing with,

you know, Optimus Primal, and then Optimal Optimus

in the Prime Wars trilogy. And that did not have...

vac metal or any kind of but they were experimenting

with bringing optimal optimus back so then that

leaves the base transmittal of primal and megatron

as another logical jump into it just like depth

charge and rampage yep and honestly those would

be kind of cool i mean we've got some of the

fusors from the show we've got some of the other

figures we just need the rest of the trans metals

uh to join you know the anniversary of beast

wars and uh yeah so and then we get to that that

mpg 17 optimus prime and that looks kind of cool

yeah it does it reminds me of the original masterpiece

along with like tying in features from the modern

figures that we have like the ankle joints and

the you know the the five millimeter pegs on

the sides of the arm and uh it's got some of

the movie aesthetic with the uh the hand swords

yeah i mean it's it's neat i i like it for what

it is like a modern interpretation however i

have studio series 86 optimus prime and that

fills the void So I do like the Power Master

figure, though, even though it's Nemesis Power

Master Prime. Yeah, I love this. I love this

version of Prime from G1. Like when I had the

comics of Marvel, I loved Power Master Prime

to the point that I made my own out of Lego.

My brother had the actual figure and I thought

it looked clunky and like brick like. I mean,

I liked it, but it was way too clunky for me.

So I made my own out of Lego and I felt it looked

better because I based it off a comic design.

Nice. So, but yeah, I love this design. I love

the fact that they've done it better. I mean,

this is a masterpiece, so it's better than the,

uh, the prime wars version, you know, but yeah.

Yeah. And, uh, Coming up, we got the last three

months of the year for Transformers comics. And,

yeah, there you go. I'll have to, I don't know.

Ezra will be like, where's my $5? Uh -huh. Every

time I hear it. Uh -huh. Yeah, exactly. He'll

have to stop using it. Uh -huh. Well, you know.

If only. Oh, boy. God, I hope not. Jesus. Oh,

that hurts my head. They will. I know. Bastards.

All right. So we got the comics for, like I said,

October, November, and December for Transformers

literally coming up this. Well, whenever you

find folks are hearing this, but October 8th,

we're recording this October 6th. So two days

away, we are entering the new story arc with

Robert Kirkman taking over the writing. Thank

freaking God. Daniel Warren Johnson. Thank God

he's gone. He never comes back to Transformers

writing, at least not in this era. And Dan Mora

with the art. So we got an oversized anniversary

issue. The Energon universe will never be the

same, and the Autobots and Decepticons kick off

the most surprising new chapter in their war

on Earth. Optimus Prime and the remaining Autobots

must join forces with unlikely allies to protect

their adopted planet, but Prime's next challenge

lies closer to home than he ever imagined, and

what is the fate of the Decepticons? So there's

that. And then coming up in November for issue

26, this is coming out November 12th. We've got

Optimus Prime betrayed. The Autobots' newest

hope may turn out to be their downfall. The most

shocking Transformers story continues here. And

then to close out 2025 for Transformers from

Skybound Entertainment slash Image Comics, December

10th, 2025, right before Christmas. This issue

has Soundwave on the cover of it as the main

cover. So that's cool as hell. Megatron strikes

back. The Decepticons make their move to rescue

one of their most powerful members from the Autobots.

Dun, dun, dun. So that's the comics for the end

of the year for Transformers. So there you go,

folks. That's all she wrote on the comics. But,

yeah. No, I'm, you know, Jesse, Matrix Prime,

myself, and Ryan the Uneven Flow Merkley, we've

been doing two years. of comics over on the another

comic review podcast that jesse started up and

uh it's been one hell of a ride in the energon

universe and up until the writing change coming

up this month with robert kirkman taking over

i faded fast on daniel warren johnson as a writer

i had never read his stuff before transformers

was the first thing he wrote that i read And

he's written other stuff in the past, like he

did a series called Do a Powerbomb, which is

a wrestling comic and a bunch of other things.

But I had never read that stuff. I hadn't even

heard of him until I read the Transformers stuff.

But we've been doing the Energon Universe stuff

over there on another comic review podcast. for

two years and what a ride it's been. But, uh,

yeah, I'm very, very excited to see this, this

new arc, this new series and with Robert Kirkman,

cause Kirkman writes void rivals. So very, very

cool to, uh, to see that, uh, happen. And then

we get to quote unquote, the most hated Autobot

in the universe. Retro Deluxe Wheelie and Outback

Revealed. Again, like I mentioned earlier when

we were talking about the other article, I had

to keep looking at this wheelie toy, and I had

to keep, I'm like, why does his face look so

wrong? And then I read the article, I'm like,

oh, right, it's based on the toy design. It's

not based on the movie design. I like the alt

mode. The alt mode's fine. His face color just

needs a different color. Like his face is like,

and it's so weird. So in the, in the box, his

it's. So in these retro figures, they use the

original box art on these things. Yeah. And then

they update the new modern version of the figure

and repaint it to look like that original figure.

Yeah. And I mean, I've seen a few of these retros.

I've seen the bumblebee. I've seen gears. I've

seen brawn. Yeah. And I'm like, I mean, I don't

care. I mean, they're kind of neat, but nothing

I'm like, I just have to have. The prime is about

my only exception on this, but. I mean, Outback

looks great. Outback looks fine. He doesn't.

Yeah, I mean, but he's not actually, you know,

he's not actually. Yeah, I mean, he looks he

looks good. I'll give him that. Like, he doesn't

look like crap. But again, like, I don't. It's

kind of like, who are you marketing these to?

yeah exactly because they've been shelf warming

yeah just like anything movie related anything

movie related they've put out for studio series

or any of that stuff it's it's shelf warm uh

they're the only thing still on the shelf like

the earth spark stuff's long gone because they

just they dumped and purged that somewhere because

it it was there one day and it was gone the next

like it was they did not want it and then five

below it's not even at five below i think it's

at ollie's they ship it across the country they're

like all right get rid of it in bulk uh yeah

i mean i'm i'm happy that they're you know trying

something different but at the same time it's

like why don't you produce more optimus prime

that people actually want to buy or produce more

megatron or you know some of the other characters

that don't seem to stay on the shelf very long

or instead of giving us you know for every case

of you know miscellaneous you get like 20 of

the uh devastation optimus primes in there and

they just shelf warm like i've not seen those

things move and i was tempted like for a brief

second to be like oh i can have one in you know

vehicle mode or i could repaint it because it

looks like crap anyway And then I was like, you

know, it just looks like cheap plastic. And I

don't know if I want to waste my time or, or,

or hard earned money. Like, I'm like, I would

rather, I would rather buy another, you know,

like knockoff Optimus studio series, 86 Optimus

prime. Yep. And repaint that or just buy one

that's already repainted. Cause you can buy the

nemesis version and you can buy the ultra Magnus

version for the same price. Yeah. And it comes

in robot mode. Exactly. Or how about this? Like,

okay, we all love the nostalgia now of the 86

toy line. You can, I don't know. I'm not going

to sit here and try to go on eBay and search

1986 Transformers wheelie. But I'm pretty sure

you can go on eBay and find the 1986 or whatever

wheelie at a semi -decent price. How about instead

of doing toy colors, you actually do movie colors?

So my biggest problem with this is not the fact

that he's in toy colors. My biggest problem with

this specific photo that TFW 2005 has done up

for this, this, well, the photo that they have

here for the packaging stuff here is the. is

the it's a blown up version of the the photo

that's below but the photo that they used for

their featured image if you look at the toy packaging

i'm like where the hell is his face like literally

i had to and look folks i get it i'm legally

blind but seriously most transformers packaging

i can tell where the damn faces are But, like,

his face is so damn orange and then the yellow.

But, like, I was like, who the hell does he think

he is? Kool -Aid man over here? Like, where the

hell is his face? Then you look at the figure

in the box. It's a slightly different color orange.

Then you look at the figure that's outside the

box. It's a slightly different color. It's the

same color orange, but it's in a different. Just

give me cartoon accuracy. Give me show accuracy.

I don't give two rat traps asses about toy accuracy

when it comes to Generation 1 colors. Don't care.

I want show accuracy. Like I said, toy accuracy

when it comes to Outback here looks cool, looks

awesome, looks great. Actually looks really good

because he isn't a piece of burnt... oh god i'm

gonna get it for this i and i and i'm a fan of

of candy corn but that photo on the back of the

but not the back of the box but behind the card

here the behind the blister pack here really

looks like a crappy piece of candy corn that

you found on the ground in that photo on the

card back That's what he looks like. That's what

that photo looks like. He looks like a piece

of candy corn. Ain't nobody picking up off the

street. Do better. God, it hurts. I got to close

that tab. Hurts my eyes more than that. So yeah,

that's coming to stores to ruin this. ruin people's

lives i probably won't even see it in the store

to be honest if you do take a picture seriously

i'm curious what it's going to look like in in

person because if it looks as bad as it looks

like in these product shots god hasbro do better

yeah okay so then we have the um The new promotional

image for MPG -19 Soundwave and Laserbeak. This

is just a new promotional image for this thing.

That's really all the story is, is that it's

a new promotional image for it. How many Soundwaves

are they doing this year? Too many. Isn't there

like seven of them or something? Like, we got

the LEGO Soundwave that came out or that's coming

out. We got this. We got something else. I don't

even know what the something else is. But yeah,

so it's just a new like this is like a one and

done nothing. It comes out new item comes out

literally in two days. Boy, but yeah, that's

that's all I had for for news there for for for

for the actual news stuff so we have the msrp

prices yes that's the topic oh boy oh god so

it's funny that i searched and like you sent

this to me and it's on cyber sabertron cybertron

.com and i'm like is this anywhere else Because

literally, I searched through like 17 pages on

TFW and couldn't find it anywhere. So I guess

Cybertron has got the exclusive for the news

here. It's actually hit Transformers Slag Podcast.

Oh, I'm sure that Proto Man would cover this.

Absolutely, he would. Most definitely. It's pretty

much on everything for his and some other YouTube

channel. However, yeah. I think this is going

to kill the brand. You think it's going to DOA

it, huh? I think so. I think people are going

to be like, alright, that's enough. part of its

tariffs part of it is the fact that they can't

get the product here part of it is the fact that

quality has gone down while price has gone massively

up yeah but it's only for the united states that

the prices are going up it's gone up everywhere

else over the span of you know last 10 15 years

it's just we're joining the rest of them yeah

um so yeah anything you know any existing pre

-orders pre -tariff are being honored in most

places new pre -orders are being raised in cost

to cover the tariffs and so um some of them are

even canceling pre -orders because there's no

way to make it financially feasible yeah and

because there's not you know there's a lot of

uncertainty and then you know a lot of companies

do not want to be stuck with it so i could see

it either going to the store and jacking the

price up i mean the toy stores are pretty dismal

anyway and like i check them every time i go

to walmart or you know target or whatever and

they're pretty uh pretty pathetic but again i

don't know like it's just kind of waiting to

see what happens i guess so Yeah, it's definitely

a wait and see game. The problem is, is that

they have, so there's so many like size classes.

That's the problem. Like you don't have, like

we used to have like, what was it? Okay, I'm

just going to say, I know there were more than

this, but for a simple example, Deluxe, Voyager,

and Leader. Deluxes were kind of like your Insecticons,

you know, you're kind of like your Bumblebee

or whatever. Your Voyagers were a little bit

bigger. Your leader classes were kind of like

your Optimus, your Megatron, your big guys, your

most important people. Now we have... Deluxe,

Voyager, Leader, Commander, Titan, and I don't

know what else is in between. On either side

of those, if there's something before Deluxe,

if there's something after Titan, I don't know.

So they technically got rid of the size class

smaller because we had Core. Right, right. I

know they got rid of Core class. Yeah, I know

they got rid of Core class. So we have Deluxe,

which is now the price of... They're going from

the... The $34 mark or the Voyager, I'm sorry,

the Voyager has gone from $34 to $42. And. Yeah.

And they're basically all size classes are going

up 23%. Yeah. So we're going to see. We're going

to see a lot higher prices, unfortunately. I'm

so glad I don't buy Transformers anymore unless

I absolutely want the damn thing. The last Transformer

I bought was the reformatted Kingdom Galvatron,

which is basically the purple version of the

Kingdom Leader Class Galvatron. I still love

the brand. I will always love the brand. I will

always love the franchise. But I've said this

a thousand times on this podcast in the last

seven and a half to nine years we've been doing

this. Ever since I sold my toy collection in

2011 or 2012, whenever it was that I sold it,

and I was out, done, I haven't wanted to, like,

I have very few non -funco pop versions of things,

and the few things that I do have, either I've

absolutely had to have them, or people have gotten

them for me. I have kingdom Ronimus. Thank you,

Alex. You know who you are. He got that for me.

So Alex, you rock. But it's one of those things

where it's like, I can look at like all the stuff

that we're going to eventually, there was a news

story that I didn't put in the, in the show notes

because you know how I am, unless we have images

to discuss these things, I'm not discussing.

I can't sit here and go through a list of upcoming

product unless I have images to go with that

product. And there was a news story about upcoming

waves of whatever. I don't know what waves of

whatever it was for transformers, but unless

I have images, I'm not doing it. So, but there,

there's going to be pictures coming in at some

point at whatever next Hasbro. 1027 or whatever

event they do where we'll end up discussing stuff.

And I can, like right now, this Alpha Trion image

that's up here for this article, he looks great.

He looks cool. I don't need him. I have no compunction

of needing that toy. But he looks great. I would

never pay the prices that are being asked for

that toy. There have been quite a few I've looked

at over the last couple years, and I've been

like, oh, that'd be cool to have. And then I

look at them again, and I'm like, price. It just

doesn't compute. I'm like, I just can't do it.

Nope. Yeah, I'm really hoping that we can get

on the other side of this and we can rebound

from all of this crap. Yeah. But the prices are

never going down. Oh, no. Why would they ever

go down? Oh, no, no, no, no, no. No, no, no,

no, no. We're going to get to a point where.

A deluxe is going to be $50. A Voyager is going

to be $60. A leader class is going to be $80.

And a commander class is going to be $100. Why

would they ever go down? But Hasbro, please do

me a favor. Please, for the love of God, get

out of the crossover game. Well, it's good money

for them. Is it really? Yeah, because they're

doing the Masters of the Universe Transformers

crossover. They're doing, you know, they've done

G .I. Joe and, you know, Masters. They've done

because, I mean, Mattel only has that, you know,

the Masters line. Hasbro has pretty much everything

else. The Hot Wheels, I think, is great because

there's a lot of opportunity with Transformers

to that. I have one of those Optimus Primes.

for the hot wheel and they're going to re -release

it next year with doubling the amount that go

into stores which means i'll get one that i can

open because my kids well my kids found me one

and i've got it in the box and it's pinned to

my wall with a you know thumbtack yeah and they

found it like just randomly at a store and i've

been looking for it for i don't know six months

and uh so i mean in those instances like i'm

excited for it i mean mattel even got to make

their own you know basically masterpiece tiny

version of transformable optimus prime of the

original g184 figure yeah and you know it's all

die cast and everything but it was stupid expensive

and so it was like i'm you know i'm gonna like

it but i'm not gonna pay for it and i've never

seen it at the store and then you know they've

got all the the card game and all that kind of

stuff crossover stuff right now too i i think

that it's They're trying to capitalize on the

synergy between the two toy companies and what

they can offer separately and by combining with

the things that they have individually. Rather

than, you know, because there's certain things

that they each have that the other does not.

And so they're able to kind of piggyback off

each other. So it's a win -win for both. But

He -Man Optimus Prime is ugly as hell. Oh, I

agree. Like any crossover with Masters of the

Universe is crap. I've seen so many different

variations of mixtures of them that I'm just

like, no, no. I mean, Skeletron was kind of cool.

He was kind of OK, but still no. I don't know.

They just didn't. I don't know. There's a huge

difference in the crossovers that Hasbro does

or whatever. Like with Gigawatt, that's an original

character that they did. Same thing with Ectotron.

That was an original character that they did

that they made a Transformer out of Ghostbuster

car or the Back to the Future car. Same thing

with Agent Knight, even though that name is stupid.

With the Knight Rider, with Kit Carr, for Knight

Rider. But I don't know, man. Just whatever.

And I'm not even going to bring up Funko Pop

stuff because I've seen listings. I've seen names

of supposed Funko Pops that they're supposedly

supposed to be doing. But I ain't even saying

jack all about that. again until i actually see

actual photos of funko actually making these

things so i i say it before and i'll say it again

you know they can make as many various vert like

they did a the most recent transformers thing

funko has done is an optimus prime game uh cover

thing with magic the gathering so it was an optimus

transformers magic the gathering crossover thing

and it's a it's similar to how they did the comic

covers that that funko does and stuff like that

so it's a pop in a box with a game cover behind

it so it's an optimus prime funko pop in a box

okay fine but i'm not buying that because it's

magic the gathering and i have no interest in

that And my first thought when I saw that was,

OK, why aren't you doing other Funko Pop characters

of Transformers characters that we haven't had

yet? Like Thundercracker, like Sky. We've only

ever gotten Starscream. We've gotten Starscream

in two versions. We've got regular Starscream,

which I have over on my shelf somewhere. We've

gotten King Starscream, which is an NFT pop.

So we've gotten two versions of Starscream. We've

never gotten the other two main Seekers, Thundercracker

and Skywarp, blah, blah, blah. Well, guess what

names I've seen in the listings that I, or what

names I've seen on the list that I've seen? Thundercracker

and Skywarp. But again, I'm not gonna really

fully, other than mentioning them now, I ain't

saying jack all about it until I see actual photos

or until Funko reveals it because... I don't

know if they're ever going to make them. I don't

know if it's ever going to happen because it

just seems like Funko just drags their feet with

the Transformers license and they put out something

so damn obscure as Optimus Prime with a Magic

the Gathering game cover. It's so stupid. So

stupid. Agreed. stupid frustrating and just as

much as i said earlier i still love the brand

i still love the franchise i still love what

i love about the franchise like we love the cartoons

that we love about it and whatever because those

are in the past and their history and we can

watch them whenever the hell we want to wherever

the hell we want to on whatever pieces of media

etc etc etc But the rest of the parts of the

franchise that frustrate us make us just shake

our head, make our eyes twitch and just go. You

notice, folks, I'm using all the tricks in my

book here in my bag not to curse because I would

just lay down a curse laden rant about some of

this stuff. And I'm trying not to do that. Yeah,

prices are going to go up. Prices are going to

go up so high that they're going to price themselves

out of anyone being able to buy their products,

which is not good. And again, this should be

something like we've mentioned this before thousands

of times. Hasbro has two markets, the kid market

and the adult market. They have to get the kid

market back. And I don't know how they're going

to do that. They're not. Because honestly, kids

don't play with toys. Yeah, true. They're essentially

marketing to us at this point because we're the

ones that are buying the stuff. Kids nowadays

don't play with this stuff. Like, yeah, you can

expose them to it. They might care. But the minute

they touch a tablet, it's game over. Like my

kids do not play with toys. They had Transformers

figures for a while. But again, they do not care.

They do not use toys anymore. Like they have

Transformers. And your boys are 12 and... 10

and 12. Okay. So they're not even at the point

of really fully aging out. They're like right

at that sweet spot of where they... They haven't

cared in years. My oldest, he sold all of his

stuff or gave it to his brother. Oh, wow. Like

he didn't care anymore. Like he bought a bunch

of stuff and then it's just kind of like, eh.

Yeah. Wow. That's yeah. I'm just, I'm just saying

like, it's, we're at this weird cusp where people,

you know, especially modern generations, they,

they're just like, I don't need this. They're

like, I mean, my kids play outside and then when

they don't play outside, they want to be on their

tablet. So, I mean, it's just, yeah. they're,

they're at this stage that they just, they don't

want to play with toys. And if they have toys,

they just are clutter in their room. And then

it's like, okay, I need to get rid of this crap.

Um, like I have, I bought the reissue of, you

know, beast wars, you know, 96 ultra optimus

primal from my oldest or from my youngest, uh,

when it came out, it sits on my desk. not because

i asked for it i mean yes i used to i used to

own it i mean i have the masterpiece like what

do i need it for but right right but i mean i

have it on my desk because they don't want it

and then the same thing goes for my oldest he

had bought on ebay transmittal depth charge and

it sits in my geek cabinet He also bought the

Cybertronian Bumblebee transformation. It sits

in my cabinet. Core Class Starscream sits in

my cabinet. I'm not joking. There's figures in

there that weren't originally mine but became

mine because they just didn't want them anymore.

I think we're at this stage though that unless

Hasbro... figures out something with the brand

i don't see it being a toy brand and that's where

as much as i hate the dude for damaging the brand

you know chris cox yeah he's not wrong about

it becoming a gaming brand like it when you look

at it kids are on digital devices if you want

to capture the kids you need the digital devices

if you don't have the the proper games or the

proper media the toys are irrelevant yeah and

if you hook them on the other two they're more

likely to purchase us they already know they

have in the bag so whatever they pump out we're

more than likely going to want yep so it's like

i mean me i'm not a completist i don't i don't

care about that like yes beast wars it's very

difficult for me to not be a completist for the

show characters yeah but even then like i i have

my specific favorites and i've you know little

by little my cabinet has no room so i've been

whittling down certain things and i'm like okay

what did i used to have that i'm like what you

know what actually matters what what doesn't

what doesn't i'll get rid of and you know it's

it's it's that scenario but i'm kind of i i'm

also like just kind of almost done like i've

got this like the last couple of you know like

megatron i don't have a g1 megatron i have g2

and i used to own g g2 megatron but not g1 like

i've never owned a g1 megatron right and uh But

I've had like Beast Wars and I've had like G1

Primes and G2 Prime. And so I use my War for

Cybertron as G2 Prime because he scales good

with, you know, the G2 Megatron and the J -Axes.

But yeah, I mean, it'll be interesting to see

what happens, especially with Toys R Us coming

back and select locations. I still don't believe

that. Oh, they're putting one in 40 minutes for

me. Well, they're being more strategic instead

of putting them everywhere. They're going to

put them in near major metropolitan areas. So

it's going to be within a half an hour of, for

me, it's going to be half an hour of Denver,

which is 40 minutes from where I'm at. So it's

actually before Denver. So I'm more likely to

go check it out when I'm in that area. Because

there's a lot of shopping stuff around there,

a lot of collection shops and things like that.

So they started coming back with pop -ups in

Macy's and different places. And they're actually

coming back with real full -blown stores. So

I'll be interested to see how well this goes

over. because they're they're planning on just

doing kind of small like 30 stores are open you

know plan to be opened right yeah um they have

a pop -up in like you know like nashville and

like some other places but um yeah it's all they

had was canadian stores and so they're closing

canadian stores and opening american ones oh

no um They're saying that the Canadian version

became a pale husk of what it once was, being

very similar to what the Toys R Us in the US

were at the end, overpriced with barely any new

stock. I don't see it going very well unless

they keep these very condensed and not trying

to be the catch -all. Yeah. So if they try not

to be the catch -all... and have like the video

games and have all the other stuff like just

strictly toys they might have a shot at survival

yeah they might have a shot at survival but one

will never know the world may never know well

i'll check it out and report back when when they

open one locally yeah i was gonna say i will

not believe this until you you know actually

go there with a video camera and film it because

The last thing I think of Toys R Us is a box

in a corner of Macy's. Yeah, I've never even

seen one in Macy's. I know, I know. I've seen

the KB toy things pop up in Kroger King Super

thing before. Yeah. I still can't believe they

tried to bring that back, too. I don't know.

It's just amazing. The times we live in, folks,

the times we live in. I miss the 80s. As do I.

I miss the 80s. I miss the 90s. I miss when things

actually mattered to people. But yeah, I think

that about rounds out this episode of all things

Transformers. So you can, of course. Get a hold

of us in the following ways. You can comment

on this episode post on the website, geekcastradio

.com. You can hit us up on Facebook and, of course,

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need the link for that, that will be on the geekcastradio

.com homepage. And, yeah, so let us know what

you think about this episode. And if... those

aren't the most convenient, you can email us

feedback at geekcastradio .com and tune in next

time when we'll probably have some more Transformers

news or discussions. Yes. Yes. Yes. So until

next time, transform and transcend. Yes.