EarthSpark, BotBots, and Transformers News Roundup

Hello and welcome to All Things Transformers.

I'm your host, Steve Megatron, and joining me

on this adventure into the Transformers fandom

is TFG1 Mike. Where's my Hot Rodimus cosplay?

That will come up later. Yes, yes it will. So

there's funny enough, there was a bunch of stuff

that kind of dropped between yesterday and today

and a lot of commentary going back and forth.

So without further ado, we're going to jump into

the first look at Transformers Earth Spark animated

series by Nickelodeon. Yep. And they revealed

the new logo, which everything that has Nickelodeon

on it has some kind of a weird background thing.

And then the Nickelodeon logo and then some kind

of a 3D logo like how they did with TMNT and

some of the other stuff. So it's got transformers

in the normal font with a little bit of interesting

texturing on the Transformers logo. And then

Earth Spark, which it's basically like a blue

white gradient with like kind of a black gradient

that's beveled. And yeah, I duplicate that fairly

easily. Yeah. And you know what it also has that

I'm seeing here and maybe my blindness is just

cut. It's outlined. It's blacklit in purple.

I can see the purple edges. Love it. Absolutely

love it. No, I think it's cool because again,

you know, Transformers Earth Spark, I understand

it's Nickelodeon. They want their name on it.

Fine. Whatever. But if their name wasn't there,

it would look even better because it's basically

the The earth like rising up and or you know

doing its orbit thing or whatever, you know so

No, so a couple of interesting things with this

this first image that they have and we're pulling

air info from TFW 2005 and They they've issued

a few stills and a brief clip from the upcoming

animated series They said that the show will

hit globally this fall. They with this image,

they show Elita one and Optimus Prime Elita and

more of the robots that are shown in this preview

have like this particular almost Transformers

Prime ask eye lighting glow feature that they've

got in the eyes. And then the CGI kind of reminds

me of. It reminds me of like a mixture of the

machinima series with like almost like a rescue

bots vibe. It's kind of like they took prime

gave him a little bit more light piping. and

then took rescue bots for the humans, which isn't

a bad thing at all. No, I'm honestly happy to

see this visual direction. And what I like about

some of the designs are they're not. You can

you can almost look at them and see how they

transform just based on how they are, because

like their their shoulder pads and some of the

they don't fill in every gap. like they do for

some of the other stuff. And it's definitely

got I've read things that this is kind of following

that evergreen design content that they've they've

been kind of putting out with the figures for

a little bit for the kids. And I don't I don't

hate the designs. They finally brought Prime's

faceplate back, which is a welcome addition.

I know War for Cybertron had it and and the machinima

series had it. But as far as the other series,

they have not. But I definitely like the the

colors. I love the brightness of it, that it's

not a dark series. I haven't heard any of them

speak outside of the humans. So I'm waiting to

see whose cast is what, what they're doing, how,

you know, obviously people are ecstatic because

the pacing can't possibly be as bad as war for

Cybertron. And true, because it's got to be faster.

Kids won't pay attention to it. Yeah. And. So

I love the details. I love all of that. What

I find interesting is their their Autobot logos

on their shoulders. Have you had a chance to

look at that yet? Yes, it's got some kind of

a menacing almost like the and this is kind of

pulling back to generation one. They they have

the Autobot logo, but it's very tiny at the bottom

of these things that are kind of reminiscent

of the when when Optimus Prime during the hate

plague episode went into the matrix and went

all the way back to the beginning. And you saw

that little covers the cybernetic outline of

a robot, and it kind of is reminiscent of that.

Yeah. And I'm almost wondering if it has to do

with something with the quintessence or some

kind of a combined race of the Transformers before

they're, you know, before the splintering. Yeah.

But it's that that aspect is kind of interesting

to me. The other thing is Nick Roche tweeted

that he's been working on the art design of the

show. Yes. And that is an awesome, awesome thing.

I am so happy for Nick. Nick did Last Stand of

the Wreckers. He did the entire Wreckers trilogy,

Last Stand Sins and Requiem of the Wreckers.

But Last Stand of the Wreckers is one of the

greatest Transformers stories of all time. Amazing,

amazing dude. I actually, when we were doing

the comic Last Stand of the Wreckers over on

the pull bag, I, because Springer is one of the

main bots in that, he's actually the leader of

the Wreckers, I went and basically wrote down

some lines that Springer says, and I don't do

this often, I very rarely will do this, but I

wrote the lines down because I wanted to have

them in Springer's voice in the podcast. I emailed

it to Neil Ross and I said, hey, you know, Mr.

Neil Ross, sir, I know you're super busy, but

if you could record these as Springer or let

me record you saying these as Springer, that

would be amazing. A week later, Neil Ross sends

me this audio and I send it to Nick and I forget

what Nick's email said to me, but he's like,

Thank you so, so much, because that was just

an ultimate thrill for him to have the guy who

originally did the voice for Springer say the

stuff that he wrote down. That was awesome. So

I'm so happy that Nick is is attached to this

series. Yeah, so I like I said, I'm I'm happy

about it as well. I'm also. reading a little

bit of the brief description of the show, including

the amount of the episodes that came out from

Animation Magazine website says Transformers

Earth Spark from Nintendo or Nickelodeon, not

Nintendo, Nickelodeon and Hasbro's Entertainment

One. Launching globally in fall 2022, this 26

episode action comedy series introduces a new

generation of Transformers robots, the first

Transformers robots to be born on Earth. together

with the human family who welcomes them in and

cares for them. They'll redefine what it means

to be a family. And so they very much look like

protoforms. Very initially, and then they scan

in the video there. Yeah. So they're they're

kind of blend. It says that the Transformers

are spark will blend the humor and heart of Nickelodeon

with the action and high stakes adventures of

Transformers set in a present day earth. The

series centers on two human kids as they forge

a connection with the Transformers like. never

before and work alongside fan favorites like

Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, Elita One. This animated

series is comedic, heartfelt, high energy and

action packed, featuring new characters and stars

a diverse multicultural human family reflecting

the current world we live in. And it's executive

produced by people from Rise of the Teenage Mutant

Ninja Turtles, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles,

Rescue Bots and the Nickelodeon Studios. So I

think Like, definitely the animation strikes

me better than Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja

Turtles, but it definitely kind of feels like

the vibe of the other TMNT 2012. Yeah, like I

said, it to me, it looks like what the very brief

thing we saw of it. It's like they're combining

not the full 3D style of prime, but they're,

you know, combining prime and rescue bots. And

that's not a bad thing. So. Nope. And so I wonder

if this is going to be on Paramount Plus. I would

assume so. I would assume so, because doesn't

it doesn't NBC or Comcast own Nintendo or Nintendo

Nickelodeon? I don't know why I keep saying Nintendo.

Why do you have Nintendo on the brain? I don't

know. It just looks like Nintendo when I see

it or Nickelback. But I can't watch it. So anyways,

I think it's going to be on. Yeah, it's going

to be on Paramount Plus as well as Nickelodeon.

So that's that's cool. Yeah, that is cool. Very

cool. So yeah, it looks to be interesting. I

look forward to seeing more about how this turns

out and kind of where they go with it since it's

definitely in a new realm of creation there.

Yeah, I want to see a longer trailer. I mean,

like literally when this first popped up the

day we're recording this. I saw it on Instagram

and I copied the Instagram link to share on all

things Transformers pages and other pages that

we manage, you know, for the network. But the

clip was like so small and I'm like, yeah, next

time I just want to, if it's not coming out until

later this fall, sometime this summer, I want

a maybe a minute and 15 second trailer, just

something a little bit longer than that little

Instagram clip was. So yeah up next we've got

Transformers Prime season 2 episodes are now

available on the Transformers YouTube channel.

So that's cool. Yep I'm happy about that because

I haven't seen some of it in a little bit. Mm

-hmm and debuting folks folks March 25th Transformers

BotBots the new hottest it's the new hotness

in Transformers folks I would rather watch War

for Cybertron on repeat for a week straight than

watch even one episode of this. Yeah, so just

before we're still talking about the Nickelodeon

cartoon. Yeah. This is Netflix and they showed

their slate and they're coming out with like

season two of the the new He -Man and the Masters

of the Universe. And they showed this off with

the the Netflix family. And it's it's from Boulder

Media and Netflix. And yeah, this cartoon is

scheduled for March 25th and nothing outside

of the graphic. And looking at it, it's Cal art

style. It's going to be like Thundercats go.

I think it's going to suck. What he means, folks,

is Thundercats roar, which did suck. That's what

I mean. Yeah. And yes. So I'm I'm of the opinion

it's going to this is going to both suck and

blow and it's going to be stupid. And watching

the distaste for just this image alone on AllSpark

was hilarious. People with the people were having

like I threw the dumpster fire thing in there

and. What was it somebody put? What was it that

they put? It was something, something making

fun of like one of those memes going. What the

heck is this? Yeah. Yeah, people were not. Not

pleased. It had. Oh, yeah, there it was. It was

like a family guy thing. And it shows it. It

shows like Noah and the Ark. And it has an elephant

and a penguin. And then he says, he goes, hey.

And then they're like, yep. And he's like, what

the heck is this? And it's a it's a penguin with

an elephant head. Oh, God. You know, like the

island of misfit toys. Yeah, because this guy's

like, I'm going to be honest. And he posts that.

Yeah, and I don't like Kellard style. It's not

my thing. I don't like it either. I would much

prefer something to what EarthSpark is or something

to what traditional. At least if it's going to

be stupid looking, give it like Robots in Disguise

1999, 2001 or whatever. And Armada, where they

did like the cheesy face thing going on. Like

don't. This is just no. I mean, I won't. Like

I said, I'm not a fan of CalArts style, but I've

seen CalArts style stuff that looks a thousand

times better than this. And I'm not a fan of

the style. This is like that universe of gumbo

or the universe of gumbo. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

So you don't even care. Like there's shows. Those

shows all sucks in my opinion. So I just like

just based on the visuals, like I can't get past

it. I'm sure there are people that appreciate

it and like it. I just. Give me some real 2D

animation, please. Yes. All right, folks, we

need to have a moment of silence because it seems

like Hasbro has said goodbye to Michael Bay because

Transformers Rise of the Beasts is going to be

the first film in a new trilogy of films. Obviously,

technically, it's the second film since Bumblebee

is the new hotness. So, yeah, but apparently

this is the first in the next three films kind

of thing. So. Yeah, I don't know. I'm. I feel

bad about it, but I'm very torn. OK, look, we

had all right. 2007 to when did last night come

out? Twenty fourteen. OK. For seven years, we

had Michael Bay movies throughout that time.

OK. The Dark of the Moon is still my... Because

I used to. What I used to do, folks, is I used

to take our little podcasts here and I used to

put pictures and stuff behind them and whatever

and throw them on my YouTube channel. Our Dark

of the Moon discussion from 2011 or whatever

the hell that was is still my highest viewed

video at over 100 ,000 views. It's the highest

thing I'll ever do anywhere. but it's one of

those things where we had seven years and five

films of Michael Bay stuff. Bumblebee is a new

start. It still has the Michael Bay designs and

style and whatever, but it was written completely

different by completely different writers that

are not Corsi and Ertsman or Ertsman and Corsi

or whatever the hell they're called. Kurtzman

and Orsi. Yeah, there you go. Yeah, Kurtzman

is attached to the trance or the Star Trek franchise

now ruining that now, too. So. Oh, that's the

other news. That's for an all things Star Trek

episode of whatever. But for Star Trek film finally

happening. Yeah. Anyway. Yeah. We'll talk about

that somewhere else. Yeah. So but it's one of

those things where like we had seven years of

Michael Bay's stuff of him. you know, doing his

director thing and controlling everything and

doing all of that, even in the middle of a writer's

strike as well. You know, so seven years and.

Four. Three, four out of the five films were

horrible. The first film, it's bad, but. Almost

what is this? Twenty twenty two to fifteen years

later. I look at that movie and I think without

that movie, Transformers would not... Yes, it's

bad. It's bad writing. It's bad dialogue. It's

whatever. But without that movie, Transformers

as a brand would not be where it is today without

the 2007 film. And don't get me wrong. The 2007

film, it wasn't bad. I didn't mind it at all.

Like, I actually enjoyed that one. It's is is

it went down the line. It progressively got worse.

Yes. Yes. I rewatched the second one the other

day just because it was on a streaming service.

And I was like, yeah, it's as bad as I remember

it. And I was swimming through it and I just

I just could not. Yeah, I just could not enjoy

it. I own the bundle pack on Voodoo, so I own

all seven films that have been or six, whatever.

Bumblebee plus the other five, I guess that's

whatever. Anyway, I can't do math, especially

after whatever time it is. Anyway, so I have

them all. I just haven't, because I want to go

into them with a fresh look for when we eventually

do the podcast episodes for them. So I have not

watched. I've seen clips here and there, but

like I have not watched any of those movies since

we originally reviewed them. I don't even think

we ended up reviewing the last night at all.

If we did, we mentioned it in Pat. I know we

did not give it a full episodic review. Uh, like

we did. the original film, The Ridge of the Fall

and Dark of the Moon. And I'm not even sure if

we did Age of Extinction either. Anyway. It is

what it is. But yes, Rise of the Beasts is announced

as the first movie of a new trilogy. So we have

that. And then, folks, we get to scratch our

heads because Steve and I are so not in this

universe. So. We need help understanding. So

this is kind of along those like the the kiss

play transformers in a sense. The sculpt and

design reveal of the. Koto Bukiya Koto Kishiyo

series transformers convoy Megatron. Oh, they're

statues. OK, they don't transform. No, that's

fine. They're stylized, but they change them

to be female. Right. OK, I get it. At first,

when I first saw the picture, I thought that

Kodobakiya was trying to do actual like. how

you can buy this Halloween costume for your kids

kind of like or your whatever. Like that's what

I thought it was. I didn't realize it was going

to be a statuesque figure. OK. I'm on track now.

But so I'm. Yeah. I mean, it's interesting and

it is officially licensed by Hasbro. Yeah. To

car or to me. Yeah. I don't even see to Kara.

I think Tommy is to Kara, but yeah, it's. Odd,

I don't get the appeal of these. So I guess I'm

just. OK, I again, I'm confused. I'm not knocking

people that like them, but yeah, I don't understand

it. OK, I it's a whole anime thing as far as

I ain't again. If we are wrong in anything that

we are saying, folks come to us privately, message

us. You can find me on Twitter or Facebook or

wherever you need to find me. As I'm scrolling

down, looking through these images, I'm not a

fan of the Optimus Prime statue, but I like how

they did a certain thing. So her briefcase is

the trailer. I didn't notice that at first. Well,

the necklace is the matrix too. Yeah, I did notice

that. I noticed the necklace. Yeah. It's kind

of hard not to notice the necklace considering

anyway. And I do like that the Megatron one has

a tie with a Decepticon logo on it. That's hilarious.

I don't know. I'm I can kind of see why people

would like this stuff if they are into this sort

of thing. And that's fine. There's nothing. Nothing

wrong with that. All right, what's next? Next

up we got the rumor of the Lego Optimus Prime

coming soon. Sure, Lego Optimus Prime. It's kind

of interesting because Lego is reporting the

company may soon be releasing an Optimus Prime

set and the details are that It will be fully

transformable without disassembling as well as

it, including a weapon jet pack and information

plaque. And it will cost reportedly one hundred

ninety two American dollars, consist of fifteen

hundred and eight pieces and will be released

in May of this year. And the speculation is that

it will be based on his appearance in the upcoming

Rise of the Beasts film. And also of note is

that due to the film's delay and. to 2023 could

delay this. It's a grain of salt rumor, but it

looks to be that Transformers is going to be

licensed by Lego, which honestly is kind of cool

because they had the. What were they called the

Creel? Yeah, years ago and. So we we we had the

Creel figures out and they were kind of they

were like Lego light. Yeah. And I didn't mind

that, but I'm kind of more intrigued because

it is actual Lego. Yeah. As Starscream descends

upon my apartment complex. Yeah, no, I think

that is really super cool. I think it's interesting.

It's going to be interesting to see how, you

know, how how and when they do it. Yeah, very

cool. Up next, we have the Transformers Optimus

Prime and Megatron Fine Art prints. These look

awesome. Yeah, by Sideshow Images. They look

awesome, but I wish that they were, like I get

it, they're the G1 profiles, and that's cool,

but I don't know, I wish it was... It's nothing

against the art at all. Like Orlando Arcosino?

Arroxino? I'm sorry if I'm mispronouncing your

last name, sir. But Orlando, as an artist, this

is the first time I've even hearing of him. I

like the way he has drawn the characters. Honestly,

I would love to see a Transformers series in

this aesthetic. Yeah, I can't agree with me.

Yeah, I can agree with that too. That would be

awesome. That would be cool when they can. Yep.

I don't know. I just like if this was instead

of two separate prints, if this was put together

as one print, like you know how they, you know,

We've done, we've seen images all the time of,

you know, Optimus and Megatron or Rodimus and

Galvatron with their faces are like this, but

they're spliced together to make it look like

it's one thing. I think that would be a little

cooler in my personal opinion. But overall, it's

not a bad thing. Sadly, we just don't know what

the prices are yet. No. And then we have Core

class hot rod has been found at U .S. retail.

So, yeah, go out and get your core class hot

rods, everybody. This is the first time I've

actually seen him in package and. He looks pretty

cool. Well, and he is tiny. There's a lot of

kibble and he's got like a hollow head in the

back and what I've seen. Yeah, but that's not

necessarily detractor like I my my kids think

he's cool looking. I. For, you know, I mean,

granted, you can get the Studio Series 86 for

about 10 bucks more, I think. Or is it 10 bucks

more? Is he 20? Maybe he's 30. I don't remember.

He was closer to 30. I don't know. Either way,

like if you just don't want a giant, you know,

a decent sized show accurate hot rod, this is

the way to go. Yeah. It's not terrible, to be

honest, like if like my my oldest prefers these

core class legend size basic figures over the

the other ones. Right. And I can't say I blame

them. I kind of prefer it to some degree, too.

And yeah, I mean, I would consider this if this

was one of the ones on my bucket list. Yeah.

And then last up we have Jada Toys Transformers

RC converting G1 Optimus Prime has been revealed.

Hot on the heel of the recent reveal of some

new diecast figurines by Jada Toys this 2022.

Now we can share for your images of new Transformers

RC converting G1 Optimus Prime. So hey folks,

if you don't want to, if you don't have or you

don't want to spend $700, here you go. The official

Jada Toys. This is very cool, to be honest. Yes,

it is. Yeah. Yes, it's not show accurate by any

means compared to the other one. No. But if you're

wanting a transformable prime. Super cool. OK,

so this just looking at the image of it here,

it's your standard. I don't want to say it's

deformed. But it's the standard Optimus Prime

like alt mode. It's the standard regular truck

mode that we've had for years now when he's just

his truck and we don't have a trailer with him.

One of the reasons why I started talking about

this story was because I actually have something

from Jada Toys. It is the Batmobile and Batman

from BTAS. It is a diecast figurine with the

There's a little Batman figurine with the Batmobile

and I have not opened it. I don't know if I'm

going to open it because they actually have a,

you know, how Transformers does the backgrounds

with like Commander Rodimus and all that. It

has a background of Gotham City in here. So I,

you know, this is the first thing I've ever had

from Jada Toys and I absolutely love it. I almost

want to open it now that I'm holding it in my

hand again, but I'm probably not going to. So

yeah, I mean, this is this is cool. This is,

you know, again, not everyone has and not everyone

should spend $700 on an Optimus Prime. You know,

they have other ones, they have Bumblebee, they

have, you know, other things for that as well.

So, but yeah, very, very cool, very interesting,

very awesome. I'm definitely a fan. Yeah, it's

a, it's a cool thing because again, you're trying,

you know, it's a, it's Hasbro licensing out Optimus

Prime to another company, a company who just

from my experience with them is really, really

good with these, you know, diecast type. things.

And I don't think the RC remote controlled after

this prime is diecast. But it's part of the it's

just a part of what Jada Toys does. And very,

very cool. You know, we got a new show coming

this fall. So at least now we know what's going

on in that portion of Transformers. We've got

the comics still coming out, we've got all the

toys that are out, or that are showing up now.

And 2022 ain't as boring as I thought it was

gonna be for Transformers. Like literally, and

I said this the last episode, I know I'm repeating

myself, Oaks, but at the end of last year, I

thought Transformers was just gonna fade away

until 2023 when we get Rise of the Beasts. But

no, we get all this cool stuff now. Not to mention

there's a bunch of the new toys coming out, but.

Yeah, I said that, yeah. Yeah. Not just the shows,

but yeah, right, right. Yeah, I just want to

see more of it Yeah, that's what I said earlier

is I want to see I want to see an actual like

a 1 minute 15 second 1 minute 30 second like

a trailer Not just the the Instagram story whatever

thing I Think that's all I got I think oh too.

Yeah, I don't think we have really anything else

transformers related it this juncture anyway.

Nope. Other than I've been seeing the the new

or the the old and the new Tigatron together

in stores. I did. I have seen reports that rat

trash has been going for dirt cheap, though.

Oh, really? If you can find them. Yeah. Like

the Walmarts around me, the lowest he got was,

I think, 14. Oh, wow. And I was like, it's not

too terrible. And Cheetor still got his high

like stayed around like 17, but he was gone like

ages ago. Yeah. And then. And then we got like

primal, depending on where you go, like if you

check their website, you can get the reissue

primal for about 32. But if you go in the store,

it's still 50. Oh, which is weird. Megatron,

on the other hand, he's still he's still 50.

It doesn't matter where you go. And then. One

of one of my good friends on Twitter told me

he's like, I just saw a rat trap for five bucks

and they had a bunch of them. And I was like.

OK, and he's going to actually let me know and

hook me up with one because like my son broke

the ball joint spot on his OG rat trap. Oh, no.

And well, you know where the the limb attaches

to the ball joint? Yep. Yeah, it's shattered

and I tried to repair it and I'm like, yeah,

it's it's done. So I need to replace a leg joint

and it's cheaper to buy the reissue and attach

that than to deal with it the other way. And

so I'm probably going to cobble some of the joints

of the old one into the new one. And I've custom

painted it. So, yeah, because my my youngest

was like, I want it to look like the shoe, not

like this. I'm like, yeah, I'm like, I get it.

Give me 50 bucks, kid. 50 bucks. He's got it.

But. But. But yeah, so I'm I'm looking at that,

but I've seen other reports where he's gone as

low as like two dollars and then they've had

shelves and shelves of him. Interesting, which

is insane. Yeah, that is insane. So. So, yeah,

I think that's about it. I'm hoping to do some

progress photos and information on my custom

Megatron as soon as I get some of it taken apart.

I'm trying to figure out because there's one

thing I've noticed about Galvatron in this figure.

Anyway, there's a ton and I mean a ton of the

the joints where they're not. They're basically

not. Double sided pins that are one sided and

then they like butt up against plastic. So like

basically you're unable to remove them like they've

got a lot of tiny screws, but then they've got

these little ball joint things or not ball joints,

but these one sided pins on one side. And there's

not really a good way to get them out. Because

I need to remove some of the Galvatron kibble.

And it's not fun. So I can imagine it wouldn't

be well. So anyways, that's that's all I got

this this this juncture. But I'm hoping in the

future to get some other stuff going. Very cool,

very cool. Anything else you got going on in

the Transformers world? I mean if somebody has

a shack on Cybertron I can go live in that'd

be great but you know it is what it is. Now I

don't think I have anything else to my knowledge

so far as we're recording this we're recording

it in the middle of Funko Fair and so far none

of the announcements include any new Transformers

Funko pops to my knowledge and yeah that's all

I got. Alrighty, so until next time, transform

and transcend.