BotCon 2011 Box Set Reveals Discussion

Cliffjumper! Commence countdown! Five! Four!

Three! Two! Listen in to the only toy podcast

you will ever need. Hello and welcome to Toycast.

I am your host, Steve John -Mike, and joining

me is General Techno. Hello, sir. Hello there.

And for the first time on Toycast, we have Chuck

Dogg, 1999. Hello, sir. Good evening, sir. How

are you? Pretty good, pretty good. This is going

to be a Toycast special discussion on the BotCon

2011 box set reveals. Yes, this is going to be

specific to BotCon 2011. It's going to be a special

episode of Toycast that will air in between episodes

84 and 85. We still have yet to record episode

85. Toycast has been kind of on an accidental

hiatus. There's been a lot going on in the background,

so this show's kind of just slipped into oblivion.

God damn it, Unicron. I think we were all thinking

that, no worries. Yeah, so basically what we

are going to do is we are going to be discussing

the BotCon reveals. I actually have, just for

my own personal reference, I actually have saved

all the pictures that they've revealed. that

I can see them all and comment on them all. I

was originally just going to open up the website

and I was like, no, screw that. I've got all

the pictures. It's just easier that way. So what's

been going on with you, Ted? Now it's been a

while since we've talked to you. Yeah, it has

been a while. I guess nothing too too much has

gone on, I guess. I mean, stuff's gone on. I've

gotten some more stuff here and there. I mean,

I got Masterpiece Rodimus the other week, I guess.

And that's a very, very cool figure. I won't

really get into it though. I've been in a bit

of a lull other than Rodimus just because there

hasn't been much coming out this month and I've

gotten my fix basically via ordering online.

The last big thing I got, other than that toy

-wise, was getting Cup and a few scourges. Introduce

yourself to the listeners, Mr. Chuck Dogg there.

My name is Charles. My screen name is Chuck Dogg,

1999. A few years ago, for the website Inside

Pulse, I did a Transformers column called the

Cybertronian Inquirer. Maybe one of you out there

read that or looked at it once. Other than that,

I've been a fan of Transformers my whole life.

I haven't been a collector my whole life. I just

started back in, I would say, maybe nine, eight,

nine years ago, towards the tail end of Armada

and the beginning of Energon. Well, you poor

bastard. Armada toys suck. I kind of like them.

For what they are, I don't think they're that

bad. Same thing about G1 toys. Well yeah, but

that was the beginning though. Yes, but our motto

was a new beginning in a way. For some strange

reason, I feel like putting in Optimus Primal

diecast construction. It's a lost art. He's a

lost art. He's a titanium toy. You leave Optimus

Primal alone. Yeah, so basically what we're gonna

do here in this special episode is we're going

to all of us We're going to discuss each of the

bot con reveals Start with what they start we're

gonna start with dead end because the bot con

set this year is transformers animated stunta

cons for the box set it hasn't been revealed

yet what the add -ons or the the convention actual

at convention exclusives are going to be so we're

just going to be talking about the five figure

box set and we're going to start with dead end

for me personally uh... when i saw this i'd my

jaw hit the floor because Yes, jazz is awesome,

but jazz is Jan animated jazz is red white black

and blue and He well, he's great. I love that

toy. Don't get me wrong It's just because it's

white and it because it's the car design that

it is I Love the character of jazz from animated.

It just didn't really do too much for me as far

as a jazz -centric toy. Even though I did enjoy

it, I'm kind of straddling the fence on him.

Of course, I do have two of him, one for alt

and one for bot. But anyway, Dead End, they basically

recolored the jazz mold to make Dead End. And

this alt mode has more colors than anything I've

ever seen. This is so awesome. What about you,

Chuck? What do you think of the Dead End, the

alt mode specifically? I gotta tell ya, I kinda

like it. I have the original G1 Stunticons and

I actually looked at Dead End and they got a

lot of those original details in. I mean, that

stripe right across the hood and roof of the

car. You know, the yellow... Like almost like

a B type of detailing on the side where the pipes

are. Yeah, it really looks good I You know, I'm

I would not know that this was originally jazz.

Look if I if I didn't know, you know, yeah, yeah

What about you techno specifically the alt mode?

Oh mode. Um, well, I guess you have to look pretty

nice to me I mean I think that the honestly the

main attraction with a lot of these guys for

the most part has been the robot modes but since

that's what they're probably gonna get displayed

in but I will say that BotCon they do do a good

job with the ROM LEDs you can't deny it they

use a lot of paint apps and that makes it look

pretty nice it's a nice looking car and it does

look very different than Jazz yeah I'm super

excited because it has purple translucent headlights

that's awesome Now specifically the robot mode,

of course all of the BotCon stuff for the most

part is repaints with remolded heads, correct?

Usually that's what they do. Yes. Yes, they've

been doing about four remolded heads a year at

this point. Right, yeah. It's reached for the

second one for something else. Exactly. And the

repaint on Jazz as dead end in robot mode is

awesome. Can't believe they use a light purple

for his codpiece I Know that's bad to say but

it just it just like technos earlier. They use

a lot of paint apps Well, I'm just impressed

looking at the picture of the toy there that

they didn't just paint like the little bit on

the chest But they actually painted a bit on

the lake there, too. Yeah, so it actually blends

really well exactly that impresses me and Honestly,

there's only one nitpick that I do have on that

jazz toy. I did mention that, but it's a case

where there's an actual reason for that nitpick.

One of the things that, as I'm sure our listeners

who've been on Twitter have known, that has been

done with these figures as they've come out is

Derek's been posting the actual concept art for

the characters on his Twitter. And on this one

here, one of the things that always irked me

with Jazz's toy as well is the fact that there's

a big chunk of the upper body there, like around

the neck area, which is black on Jazz and on

dead end, but it's unpainted plastic on the actual

toy. And to be fair, there is an actual logistical

reason there, because of the fact that that panel

is actually getting covered by the piece that

folds down over the head. Oh yeah. Like the two

sides there, they did the same thing on jazz.

I actually went and took a black pen of some

sort to mine actually to make my jazz more accurate.

To me it's not really that noticeable. I do see

what you're saying though and I love the fact

that the dead end head first of all has You know

a mustache twirling goatee type thing and he

has a purple visor. That's awesome Yeah, yeah

the uh, I thought the goatee was pretty good

too just from the perspective of The fact that

well, I guess that he's going for a beat poet

type thing with that Yeah, and it actually makes

it look a lot different than jazz adding that

mustache. Oh, yeah it does Um, what about you

chuck? What did you like about dead ends robot

mode? Well, I gotta say they did a beautiful

job on the head I mean just looking at it. I

wouldn't have been able to tell that it's jazz

I mean just a little details with the mustache

and a little goatee. I mean that was incredible

I do like how in robot mode that maroon Like

color of the main of the V that main maroon color

from the vehicle. It's broken up with that lavender

chest and Lake area, you know that that you know,

it means it breaks it up, but not too much. Yeah

You know, it'll be interesting to see, you know,

how good this looks in person. Oh, yeah It's

gonna be so cool. Yeah Cuz that's one thing I

will say with the bark on photos. I mean nice

as they look I just know this from when I know

this is just case and point here. When Toy Fair

came along, on the BACON TFCC website, what they

did for members was they made a whole ton of

pictures of all the Dark of the Moon, the first

few waves. They took pictures of the actual samples,

like the final paint samples, not photoshopped

or anything, and put them up on their website

for the members to see. Now, I mean, there were

places you could find them that weren't the Bakhan

site, but that's beside the point. But the fact

remains, though, that just as some of you might

know, I got my hands on an iron hyena from Dark

on the Moon early, the Voyager, and just looking

at those photos in comparison. It really shows

just that there is a definite difference on in

-person versus the lighting they have there.

Yeah, but I mean these BotCon photos are of the

actual toys. These aren't photoshopped images.

Yes, they're the factory samples that BotCon

gets back. Yeah, exactly. So I mean these are

obviously going to be more accurate to what you

would see in person rather than a photoshopped

image. So that's the really good thing. Moving

on that there's still there's slight differences.

That's all. Oh, yeah. Yeah Moving on to the next

reveal they did and I love how they did the reveals

They did like word games or guessing games on

Twitter with Derek and and the at BotCon Twitter

page One of the clues for the second reveal was

Bob Seeger's shakedown and then the other clue

was this This mold or this transformer has been

in BotCon for previous times total or four times

altogether. And as soon as I heard shakedown,

I'm like, well, that's breakdown. There's no

question that it's breakdown. And they have repainted...

Transformers animated Rodimus Miner. Oh god,

I hate that name. Sorry, Derek. I'm sorry, Derek

J. Wyatt. I prefer Rodimus Prime. That's not

him though, Rodimus Miner. That's Hasbro. I know,

I know, but anyway. I know it's Hasbro, but anyway.

So yeah, they repainted the Rodimus mold as breakdown.

As far as the car mode, I like the colors, but

I just... It doesn't grab me. And of course,

everyone who has listened to Toycast before knows

that I have a huge Jones for Shattered Glass,

and I'm more grabbed by the Hyperhavi Black Rodimus

repaint than just as far as the alt mode specifically.

The robot mode is something totally different,

but the alt mode specifically for Breakdown,

I just really don't like it that much. It's nice,

it goes along with the rest of the set very well,

but it's just not my thing. What about you, Techno,

for Breakdown's alt mode? Alt mode, I thought,

was pretty good. I mean, the biggest worry about

it, for me, quite honestly, was the fact that

Rodimus has his spoiler. And they actually did

a pretty good job of incorporating that in there

and still making it not look like Rodimus. I

mean, the paint layout for that figure is definitely

really good. Though it's not something I would

have thought of, it's something other people

pointed out on other podcasts that the bow weapon

apparently they made look like Breakdown's clip

-on weapons that the original toy had. Which

is awesome, but I still hate that damn bow. I

don't care what animated Rodimus repaint that

comes with, I hate that bow. On the car mode,

I hate that bow. What about you, Chuck, as far

as Breakdown's alt mode? I think it's great.

My favorite color is blue and I especially love

this particular shade. I mean it looks absolutely

perfect. Just the way they worked it in with

the white and that little stripe of purple in

the front. I mean it really makes this stand

out a bit more and differentiates it enough from

Rodimus. Moving on to the robot mode I really

like what they did with the headlights and his

shoulders where they have the red pieces because

that for some strange reason that makes him really

pop to me in his robot mode. The head I'm assuming

is, do you want Cartoon Accurate Head? Yeah I

think that that's what they were going for. which

is very interesting and very neat that they're

going for that. Again, for me, while I like it,

Breakdown goes well with the rest of the set,

it's just not something that grabs me as far

as the robot mode. Overall, I like the entire

set this year, but Breakdown is someone outside

of his head sculpt is not. Not somebody that

I'm really and really liking overall unfortunately

But it's still cool What about you techno for

his robot mode? Yeah, well breakdown. He's a

character that I mean honestly I was joking the

other day the other day shortly after he got

revealed just that You know we should we should

just make it a running thing every year to get

a new breakdown toy in each set Because yeah,

this is the fourth breakdown toy. We've gotten

in the second one in a row Yeah, but I mean really

I thought that the new head like he was a character

that was going to need a new head Because Rodimus's

head is just too distinctively Rodimus Oh, yeah,

and he looks pretty good like that Deco like

he'll look very good on the shelf and I mean

he And the transformation actually works really

well. It's not quite like the original toy style,

but it's essentially this, it's the same transformation

that I guess three, I guess that two out of his

three other BotCon toys have all shared because

they were all based off the side swipe mold,

basically. The other two. But one thing I will

say about the head though that caught my eye

right away is in terms of resemblances, it actually

looks, reminds me a lot of a certain other character's

head and given what Breakdown was a repaint of

in other stuff, it gives me a very good idea

as to what we might be getting as possibly an

attendee exclusive toy. If you take the classic

side swipe toy, and let's see, he's got the ears

there, they're less pronounced, but there's ears,

and he's also got the big visor. And he's got

the same type of transformation as side swipe.

I honestly could very easily see them doing a

side swipe from this mold as an AT &T exclusive.

That could be possible. Could be possible. What

about you, Chuck, as far as breakdown goes, as

a robot mold? You know the mold itself was my

one of my favorites from animated even though

I didn't don't have that many animated molds

But I love the new head You know the the joints

are just Great. I mean this was a great figure

to pose to begin with I Mean I really there's

no really nothing more I can add It looks good,

and I'm honestly probably this is going to be

one of three figures I'm going to go after to

try and get Yeah, he's he is very awesome Moving

on to the next reveal they actually had a poll

for this one They were either wanting us to decide

on drag strip or wild rider to be the third revealed

Figure Everybody knew I think I don't know but

I think everybody kind of knew ahead of time

What mold they were gonna have to use for drag

strip? considering what animated molds are as

far as race cars. I was just saying there was

a lot of speculation as to who Dragstrip was

going to be. Yeah, and it was revealed that it's

a repaint of the Transformers animated RC mold.

Along with this repaint of RC, they genderbended

Dragstrip to be a female instead of a male, which

me personally I do not care. In animated, in

the cartoon, they gender vended Red Alert to

be a female. I didn't care about that. I don't

care about this. I think that Dragstrip, I think

actually, I like the Dragstrip repaint of the

RC alt mode a lot better than the actual RC alt

mode colors. Oh yes, I honestly agree. Quite

honestly, it's going to seem weird because it's

the one that didn't get any head remotes. But

I think it quite honestly is actually the figure

of the set for me. Just in terms of how I really

like the deco that they did on the figure. And

I also find it amusing just that they did the

whole idea of making Dragstrip female. At first

you get the whole thing that... Oh, the drag

strip is a female? And then, you know, once that

wears off, you actually start thinking about

it. It's like, you know, I can see a character

like drag strip being the type that when they

hear somebody make that obvious joke, they grab

them and then they basically just drive them

along with while pressing that bot's head to

the ground, something like that. Yeah, you know

like very short I see that drag strip is having

a very short temper because that joke got old

a few thousand cycles ago that I Didn't know

anything about what happened over at TFW 2005

comms message boards. I didn't know and then

I believe it was Monty prime I think Showed me

a link to it. I think that's who did it. I'm

not sure again if I'm miscrediting someone I'm

not sure And, you know, I've often said, well,

TFW2005 .com is a great news source, and that's

where we go for a lot of our news in general.

I'm sorry, their forums are too large, and there

are too many people on there that, number one,

are most likely underage, or number two, are

too immature to have a... decent opinion with

that. I mean, it's fine if you want to tell a

dirty joke once, but don't have six to ten friggin'

pages of dirty jokes about a friggin' piece of

plastic. Well, the thing about TFW that makes

me cut it some slack is just the fact that it

is probably the there's always going to be that

website in any fandom that attracts the most

people and thus ends up being the most stupid

and Where you get stuff where half what people

don't actually bother to read the first few pages

of the thread So they miss out on a lot of stuff

that's clarified very early on Exactly. Well,

I mean I have no Problem with any of the TFW

like the like the main staff or anybody that

runs the actual site or anybody that does the

news posting I have no problem with that I just

have a problem with how they run their forums

and how many people on there are as Immature

as they are and I really don't want to turn this

into a oh my god. This is bashing TFW's boards

Episode but it's just one of those things when

the drag strip thing was revealed everybody was

all up in arms because of one bad joke And it

was just, you know, tell the joke, laugh about

it, move the fuck on. But like I said, I really,

really love the repainted RC as in the drag strip

colors. What about you, Techno, for her alt mode?

Yeah, the alt mode, it looks pretty good to me.

I mean, it's... Good repaint of the toy overall.

It's it's probably the best choice just because

it looks the most like a race car Yeah, like

there were people who were saying who were adamant

up until this toy got revealed that it should

be blur but Really you I think blur was never

I don't see how anyone could have possibly considered

blur given that the same organization the exact

same people About just around the time of the

convention. They're going to be giving us a yellow

remolded blur So that meant it was completely

out of the question, because these guys aren't

going to try and sell us the same toy. Then they

would have people complaining. Then you would

have a lot of complaints. Exactly. What about

you and the homage, Chuck? I kind of like it,

but it's funny because I'm looking at it. I know

everyone says, well, it's a throwback to G1 dead

end, but I also see an homage. to the Takara

Brave series, there was a combiner team called

Land Bison and in that it had an F1 style car

that was yellow and had a lot of these same detailings.

So I wonder if that was a, you know, there was

a little bit of a dead end homage as well as

an homage to this other character. I'm not really

sure. Moving on to her robot mode. I don't mind

that she doesn't have a remolded head. uh...

in considering probably what the botcon budget

was this is probably the one thing that really

didn't need a remolded head i'm glad that they

painted her head the way that they did though

with uh... the the the maroon had the red eyes

and then uh... i guess that the teal or some

sort of tealish blue face yeah original figure

yeah uh... I really like it because it also reminds

us of RC, but it also reminds us of Drag Strip.

I love the fact that the swords are red. That's

awesome. Right. What honestly makes all the difference

on that figure, I think, is the fact that Rather

than RC painting the same face, instead they

didn't paint the cheekbones the same color as

the face and by doing so made the face narrower.

And in that act it makes the head look very different.

It's one of those things that Hasbro does from

time to time with the mold where they'll take

the same mold, give it a different paint job

and it'll look like a very different character.

That's the sort of thing that they did here.

And I guess I feel it's probably worth it to

bring up here with regards to drag strip, a very

interesting observation that I made, which was,

as some of you might know, Derek Wyatt is very

particular when it comes to choosing things like

eye color, in terms of the fact that he generally

works on the idea that Autobots have blue eyes,

Decepticons have red eyes, and people who switched

sides tend to have purple eyes. Yeah, and if

you notice drag strip is the only character in

this set who has red eyes and that's on Derek's

own line art. Oh Yeah, I know And it's very very

awesome Good oh I was just agreeing that's awesome

What about you for the alt mode Chuck not the

alt mode the robot mode for drag strip? Well,

I gotta tell you I mean I'm looking really close

in at the head and I don't know if they've like

painted the mouth differently because it sort

of looks like she has a little bit of a sneer

going and I don't know if that's just a trick

with the painting but it really makes the face

like as a techno said look different but it really

makes it makes it stand out to me other than

that we do have like the you know more of the

yellow with that maroon striped and I mean I

too like the swords in that clear red plastic

Yeah, the face, the actual mouse piece, I, mouse,

mouse piece, what the hell's a mouse piece? The

actual mouth piece, I believe, is different.

No, it's not. I just took a close look. What

they did actually is really clever. That's another

thing that just helps this figure stand apart

just on paint details alone. Those are the lips,

but they painted them like teeth. They don't

look like teal in the picture. They look like

they're white. It looks like her teeth. Yeah,

that's why I said, they painted the lips like

her teeth. Oh, okay. Instead of having lips,

she's got a... Yeah, yeah. Because the shape

of RC's lips, that does actually work. Yeah.

Again, that's a clever of BotCon getting very

creative with color choices. And as you said

before, Techno, Derek did put up her... Her animated

design on on his twit pic or Twitter or whatever

in his design Her lips are the same maroonish

black, but I'm glad that the BotCon people Made

them look like like she's gritting her teeth

that makes it look a lot more awesome I do hope

that those aren't painted out, that those are

light piped eyes and not just painted on though.

Like they potentially look in that picture because

RC has some of the best light piping of all the

figures in that line and as everybody knows,

red light pipes way better than blue. Yep. Yeah

that was, yeah well let's hope it is light piping.

Moving on to the fourth reveal, it was rumored

It was speculated on at TFW 2005 that Lockdown

was going to be the repaint slash remolded head

for Wild Rider. And that is what we got, except

we got Blazing Lockdown for the repaint, not

the actual original Lockdown. Looking at Derek's

design, just amazing. I like Lockdown's alt mode

originally. I never really liked his robot mode

as far as the actual toy. It just wasn't something

that appealed to me. I liked the character on

the show. But as far as the toy, I preferred

the alt mode to the robot mode. And looking at

the toy for Wild Rider, the alt mode is just

amazing. They even have a chainsaw. Yeah, it's

a pretty nice salt mode. I think that, quite

honestly, that was one of the ones that I think

surprised a lot of people once Breakdown got

revealed because of the fact that a lot of people,

myself included, when we first heard, oh, it's

a Stunt Gun set, we all thought, oh, of course,

they're going to use Rodimus for Wild Rider like

everybody's been doing for the last few years.

Instead, they decided to not do that and picked

a guy who actually looks like Someone who's like

really dangerous wild rider. Yeah The car mode

is is very interesting. I love the fact that

it has the translucent red for the windshield

I love how this the the spikes on the wheels

come out kind of like, you know You're driving

along and you're gonna hit somebody with your

wheel knock them out Overall The car mode looks

good, but I prefer the lockdown colors for this

one. What about you, Techno, for the alt mode?

I'm just going to grab a quick pic of the alt

mode, just a sec. Yeah, I mean, looking at it,

that's actually hard to say, because lockdown,

he does have a good alt mode, but Wild Rider,

actually, he does work pretty well despite not

having that much campaign apps. I think that

just the simplicity of it, like the gray with

red actually works really well. Yeah, what about

you, Chuck, for a Wild Rider's alt mode? I got

to say, the original Wild Rider was supposed

to be a muscle type of car, so I think the lockdown

mold is a great choice. And how can you not like

an alt mode that has a chainsaw sticking out

the front end? That's a car I want to drive on

the streets of New York. I mean, that'll get

me through traffic uber fast. Yeah. Yeah, I mean

it is awesome, I just feel that the gray, like

all the gray on the alt mode, I just feel that

to me it's just too bland for me. But the alt

mode in general, it does look particularly awesome.

On his alt mode, or not his alt mode, his robot

mode, again, it's the blazing lockdown thing,

and the one thing I'm going to focus on more

than anything else, is the picture that BotCon

put up on their Facebook, the up -close picture

of his head mold. And wow. This thing, for some

strange reason, I don't know why, this thing

reminds me of Trapjaw from Masters of the Universe.

Can someone explain to me why his eyes are two

different sizes? Well, that's actually easy that's

actually one thing that I noticed that I noticed

right away when we saw that You know that this

is actually a bakon first this head. It's the

first asymmetrical head that bakon has done Oh,

very cool. Like all of their heads so far have

been symmetrical, even heads which probably would

have looked better asymmetrical like Skybite

from last year. That was one of the big complaints

actually that a lot of people had about that

Skybite when that head got revealed that he was

a symmetrical head when the classic figure had

the asymmetrical crazy eyes. Yeah. But yeah,

I think that it works really well on Wild Rider

in that the guy looks completely insane and nuts

and Well my what I want to do with these toys

when I get them is I want to take Wild Rider

Give him his chainsaw and then basically have

him crazily headed headed towards My wreck car

who's backing away as he says put down that chainsaw

and listen to me What about you on the alt mode

for Wild Rider Chuck? Well, first of all, I hate

to say that it's a new head. I think it's like

partially a new head because that neck looks

to be that or that double jointed part looks

to be the same as the original lockdown mold.

With that said, I think it looks great. I mean,

I like the little crazy eye thing. It's like,

oh, you want to mess with me? I mean, the colors,

I mean, you know, moving from just a straight

flat gray, we now get a little bit more of this

more lavender purple with some silver. One thing

that does concern me is I'm looking at the hands

and it appears that they never corrected the

mold problem with that. The hand doesn't flip

out completely straight and I understand that

that might have been a little bit more work than

what the budget would have allowed, but I would

have liked, you know, maybe that they could have

scraped something together that they could have

fixed that before putting it out in this set.

Yes, I know what you mean, but however by the

same token though. I'm just looking at wild rider

right now Just a couple things I guess the first

one is with the neck the neck on lockdown. It's

not like the second Toy we got in that if you

remember it's actually one piece that the head

joint is actually attached to so they couldn't

really remold that Okay, because that's the swivel

with because that's where the head actually joints

on Two, that piece. And then also with regards

to the hands, I'm also disappointed with that,

I will acknowledge. But I was just looking at

the picture here and thinking, you know, it actually,

if he's properly posed, it would actually add

to the craziness that he doesn't have his hands

out straight, but they're instead hunched down

to some extent. Yeah, like if they're, like they're

shaking a little. It's like, you know, instead

of just being out, they're like bending in more

because he's just like shaking. He's like that

little twitch going. Yeah. I'm trying to think

of what comes to mind when I look at this Wild

Rider. There is a certain character that comes

to mind just in terms of utter insanity, but

I can't think of who it is. It's bugging me now.

For me it was Trap Job, just simply because of

Wild Rider's mouth, the way his mouth looks.

I was just thinking in terms of the fact that

he looks like an insane character who has a chainsaw.

And that's not a good combination. I would say

if you gave Steve Buscemi's character from Mr.

Deeds a chainsaw, he would be Wild Rider, since

Steve Buscemi's character in Mr. Deeds had those

crazy eyes. Yeah, yeah. Maybe I'm thinking of

making a reference to something that is actually

kind of time -wise relevant. Maybe I'm thinking

of how many of you guys have seen Reboot? Uh,

not a lot of it. I've seen a few episodes. Okay,

well the DVDs are out next week, so you need

to pick those up, but mine are in order. But

anyway, it's making me think, I think of that

one game character from a few, couple of the

episodes, what is it, Rocky the Rabid Raccoon?

Just the inter-, it was basically like a Bugs

Bunny type parody, but just the sheer level of

how the character just looks completely and totally

insane. And then you go and give him a chainsaw

after that insanity. Yeah, and yeah, he's just

going to start carving up everything in sight

while delivering the one -liners Yep Before we

get into the final reveal that they've done for

the box at the fifth figure. I have to tell a

story a few months ago before any of the BotCon

tweeting started I don't know. I was up one early

morning or one late evening. I don't remember.

I think it was an early, early morning. And I

saw Derek J. Wyatt post on Twitter, does anybody

have a picture of the back of Motor Master's

head from G1? He said he wanted to know what's

back there. I was like, oh, OK. So I went. back

to my G1 DVDs and I took a screencap of the back

of Motor Master's head and I sent it to him.

Lo and behold, the fifth and final figure for

the BotCon 2011 set is Motor Master, a repainted

Voyager Optimus Prime with a remolded box head

for Motor Master. First of all, looking at the

animated design that Derek drew up, Looking at

the head that he drew Motor master just reminds

his head sculpt reminds me of Lobo from Superman

the animated series and Justice League Just his

face But yeah, I I'm so glad they went with the

Voyager Prime design versus the retgar God Looking

at the actual toy, looking at the alt mode, I

think, where is the alt mode picture? Oh, here

we go. I love black and purple primes. As long

as it's black and purple, I don't care. You could

paint anything black and purple and I'd like

it. I love how the purple translucent stuff is

on the light bar. I love how it's on the windshield.

Love how they actually incorporated the axe as

his trailer with the different colors to fit

motor master. Thank God There are no flames on

this figure My one question is why does he have

two decepticon symbols? On the offload Where

I'm just if you look at the alt mode picture,

there's the decepticon symbol on his what is

effectively his left arm And then if you look

at the axe There's a Decepticon symbol right

there in the striped part No, I'm just looking

right now. It's actually don't remember seeing

his omelet photo I focused more on the robot

mode and just glanced at that. I'm like once

I Think this okay. Sorry. No, go ahead. Go ahead.

Good I I think the stickers on the original g1

toy for the trailer part had that striping detail

with the Decepticon logo. Okay, that's probably

what it's homaging then. Yeah. I was just going

to say looking at it that looks like the same

pattern he had on his trailer back in G1. And

on the arm that just has the Stunticon logo there.

Yeah, yeah. I think my only real complaint about

the actual robot mode is that he doesn't have...

that he has yellow headlights and and and top

lights and the yellow crotch piece instead of

because in Derek's design it looks like it's

green kind of like what Shattered Glass Prime

had actually those headlights do look green now

that I look at it so like the molten wind ones

they're just more of a yellowish green that's

all it's just that they're washed out by the

lighting it could be it looks yeah it looks more

like a yellowish green because keep in mind that

uh For one, these are light box photos, for one.

And for two, there was actually a tweet by BotCon

not long ago, a few hours ago, where they were

basically saying that, yeah, keep in mind that

in person, these actually look really close to

Derek's art, to Derek's drawings in terms of

colors. Yeah, yeah. And again, it's probably

just the lighting on the picture. Techno, what

do you think of the repaint at all? I mean, obviously,

this is just Voyager Prime, but it's repainted.

What do you think of the recolor? Oh, well, the

All Mode, I mean, I don't have much to think

of. I mean, it's a black prime with some purple

on it. I mean, that was kind of... It doesn't

look bad, though, to be fair. You can't really

make that null look like prime, though. I mean,

it's too distinctive. I mean, they did a pretty

good job, though, all things considered, making

it null look like, say, a nemesis prime or something

like that. And let's face it, as far as the actual

cartoon continuity. Motor master was the first

original evil optimus prime. So I Do have a comment

on the robot mode actually when we get to it

Chuck, what do you think about the alt mode colorings?

Well, I gotta say the use of the teal lavender

and light purple really Keep this from becoming

just another generic black optimus prime You

know other than that I you know I got a funny

aside when I first saw the photo I thought that

they actually went ahead and were using the wing

blade optimist prime parts because when I first

saw the that the part of his axe that forms that

like a Fake trailer I thought oh wow that's that

that's about different it looked that I thought

oh god They actually went ahead and gave them

you know those parts for the trailer, but I think

it looks good Yeah. Moving on to robot mode,

what did you want to point out, Techno? Oh, I

just wanted to say, I guess if I had one big

complaint about the robot mode color compared

to Derek's design, it might just be a lighting

issue again. It's that looking at the design,

the bits around the headlights and the grille

are the same. On the design, they're the same

shade as the box head and the forearms. But on

this, they look like more of a silver. I honestly

think that the tracks more from the overall aesthetic

look of this toy Yeah, I think he needs he needs

more of that color on the chest. I think just

to help break up the black Yeah, it's fun. It's

funny. I've been going I've kind of been swaying

on this all day I mean like the head at first

I couldn't make out what the head was supposed

to have face wise until We got to until I saw

Derek's art And then the prototype had made a

lot clearer as well. But the more I look at this

guy, quite honestly, the more I think I'm liking

him. Yeah, I'm really, really liking him. I know

that it's just a repainted Voyager Prime, but

I almost wish that the Voyager Prime mold was

more... I know it's logistics and it's, you know...

parts have you know transformation parts in its

logistics all that they have to fit where they

have to fit but just looking at the the animated

prime design for motor master optimus primes

you know chest and and all that is lower parts

are a lot skinnier on the design than the actual

toy is and i think it would have worked a little

bit better Because, I mean, looking at Derek's

design of Motor Master, obviously, there's just,

like with the headlights and the grille, it's

not as wide as it is on the toy. And I get why

the toy has to be the size that it is, because

everything has to fit, you know, fit in well

into certain places. But overall, I really, really

love the repaints. This is probably the first

Voyager Prime. I mean, we've seen, like, Black

Prime repaints of this mold. But this is the

first one that I absolutely love. I think one

thing I really like about the head, quite honestly,

is there's a few things I like about it. For

one, the actual size of the head. That was one

thing I was kind of afraid of, simply because

of the fact that, well, I knew that Derek was

going to be doing a box head because he pretty

much all but said that. So I was concerned that

the actual face was going to end up too small

relative to the rest of the body. But instead,

Yeah, man, they gave him a massive head. I'm

impressed they managed to actually fit that head

in there. Yeah, it's gonna be interesting to

see how he transforms. Yeah, I mean, to be fair,

looking at the Prime toy, there actually is a

lot of clearance for that head, but just because

it is a bit wider because of the antenna and

stuff, so there is quite a bit of clearance.

And just also because, keep in mind, there's

that whole block that the head is attached to

because of the gimmick with the faceplate. So

there actually is a lot of unused space on the

original's head that this one does take advantage

of. So I mean, it does look like a really good

face. And I think one thing that I like is just

the mustache. I mean, you say lobo, but the first

thing I honestly thought of is I actually thought

a bit of it's the type of mustache Hulk Hogan

had at one point. Yeah, so I got the whole professional

wrestler vibe out of him in that like he'd be

the guy who goes up on stage You know all steroided

up and he's boasting how he's cool how he's you

know King of the road and how he's gonna tear

his enemy a new one and that sort of thing. Yeah

It'd be interesting to see what and of course

I know we're not gonna get these and I'll let

Chuck give his thoughts on the robot one here

in a second But it would be interesting to see

what would have happened if these Stunticon designs

made it into the cartoon uh... what do you think

of the uh... the robot mode for motor master

job as does question do you guys catch the tweet

from derrick why it where he's and it was also

retweeted by pot con The photo we're seeing of

Motor Master with the head is actually the head

is slightly photoshopped because they apparently

when they got it from China it had like an X

through it as like to disfigure it so people

know that it's like a prototype and that this

has been photoshopped to take out that X. Yeah

we didn't see that but then on Facebook they

actually posted pictures of the resin prototype

for the head. Okay, you know I was just saying

I was mentioning because I know I had a question

about the size and how it would fit in too but

apparently you know since the heads been adjusted

it really I'll have to wait we'll all have to

wait and see until we get it there but other

than that I I've never had the Voyager Optimus

Prime mold so I don't know much about the toy

but I do like how you know they use the yellow

from the headlights is used down along the waist

area and on the feet and it breaks up that you

know purple black and it's like a turquoise coloring

and you know just just a little bit you know

break it up a little but other than that you

know I like this I've seen some you know dummy

images of what it would have looked what wreck

car would have looked like with a motor master

head those were okay but the more I see that

even the more I see this I like this more yeah

there was no way that Derek was going to do Now

motor master as I'm sorry like I said before

Motor master was the first evil prime and caught

in cartoon continuity I don't I don't know about

the comics, but he was the first evil prime in

Cartoon Con Derek has said on Twitter. No no

no I would not have liked retgar as as motor

master I can see why people might like that design,

but I saw a picture of it myself and No Yeah,

looking at Motor Master here, just in terms of

the head size, now that I'm taking a closer look,

yeah, they didn't Photoshop the size of that

head at all, I can tell. Like, it still takes

up the same place, because the actual base that

Prime's head is attached to on the toy that flips

up is wider than the head itself, so it is perfectly

feasible for the head to actually be that wide

and still work. Yeah. Yeah, it's gonna be a really

even though I've you know kind of not like to

like individually like that some some of the

figures look like dead end not dead end I like

breakdown and stuff like that, but overall this

year's set This year's set is by far my probably

my number two overall favorite out of any bot

concept of course everybody who listens to Toycast

and everybody who follows me at this point knows,

my number one BotCon set is 2008 Shattered Glass.

But this one is going to be off just awesome.

Just so, so awesome. Yeah, it does look like

it's going to be a pretty good set, I do have

to say. I mean, the other set that I've got myself

is the... I got the 2010 box set, and that one

I really liked, just because I liked the GT throwbackiness

of it. But, I mean, yeah, like this looks like

a really good set when I heard they were doing

an animated set. I was like, okay, I need to

immediately start making plans to get somebody

to pick up every single toy for me just to make

sure that I have all of that locked and figured

out so I know I'm getting them. Because these

are going to go on the aftermarket for a bit.

Oh, these are going to skyrocket on the aftermarket.

These are going to just be... I'm sorry. To people

who like the 2009 and 2010 sets, that's fine

if you like those. I'm sorry, those sets, in

my personal opinion, sucked. And I just didn't

feel that they were BotCon's best moments. And

this one is going to be just like Shattered Glass.

You're going to see these figures go, I don't

know which ones, but you're going to see them

go prices as like Shattered Glass Rodimus is

now on eBay. And you're going to see the set

go for at least I would say anywhere from $5

to $1 ,000 after market. It's going to be so

popular because everybody, for the majority of

the trans fandom, and of course I can't speak

for the entire fandom, but from the people that

I've talked to, everybody loved animated. For

the most part, there are some people that are,

oh, G -1 earned Buster, I hate the animation

style, I hate the design, the way the character

looks, they're too cartoony. Well, that's your

opinion and that's fine, whatever, it was still

awesome. Although to be perfectly fair, there

are people I do know of that weren't big fan,

they were fans of animated the show, but they

actually didn't really like the toys, so. I do

know that there are people like that, so. Yeah.

Just pointing it out there. Yes, just very very

awesome. I wish I wish I wish I could go to BotCon

this year. Unfortunately, I can't not only because

of money issue just because of where it's located

and travel issue and all that See, I won't be

attending this year, but just So, so awesome.

Any final thoughts, guys? Chuck, you got any

final thoughts? Any speculation on what the ad

on sets might be? Well, I mean, it's funny you

were talking about the people who like and don't

like animated. I mean, I'll freely admit, I was

not a fan of the series. I was not a fan of the

toy line. But one thing I did appreciate was

the fact that they were able to take what we

saw on the screen and then make it into a toy.

Like, you know, you have Optimus Prime and he

literally looks like what he did on the screen

and I was just floored by that. You know, and

I appreciate the fact that Derek J. Wyatt was

a big fan of Transformers and he worked in so

many homages. I have heard some speculation on

what the extra sets will be. I have heard that

the Voyager Prime mold will be repainted. without

the head with with the original head will be

repainted as toxic tron now we don't know this

for sure these are just rumors yet this is all

rumor i i you know i i i i know nothing uh...

who else did i hear uh... i'm trying to think

i i can help you out if you want self yeah it

would we would you please go ahead Yeah, sure.

Well, the rumors that are floating around, and

there's been a few sources that I supposedly

have been cooperating these, is that one of the

figures is going to be a G2 side -swipe. One

of them is going to be an autotroopers as the

army builder. Although I think that, quite honestly

on that one, just about everybody who heard there

was going to be an animated set thought, okay,

autotroopers are the troop builder. Yeah, then

there's also the rumors that the Toxitron rumor,

they're going, also another one is that Iron

Fist is going to be a figure and he's going to

be a repaint of the autotrooper. And they're

also going to have, BotCon did confirm this just

today, there's going to be a set of non -animated

figures. And the rumor is that those are going

to be Action Master Thundercracker and Shattered

Glass Galvatron. Interesting. Yeah. Well, with

Action Master, Thunder Cracker, Shardglass, Galvatron,

you'll probably want those, Mike, because Action

Master, that's the same deco that Shardglass,

Thunder Cracker has, so he's a dual -purpose

toy. And as for the Galvatron, well, that'll

probably just be a straight -up EVAC repaint,

but EVAC's head should work fine for Galvatron.

Yeah. Alright, so I think that's going to do

it for us here on the special BotCon 2011 reveals

episode of Toycast. Thank you for joining us.

There's always getting in contact with us to

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iTunes. I check this frequently. We haven't gotten

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U .S. side. I don't know about the Canadian side.

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enjoyed this episode of Toycast and hopefully

we'll have episode 85 recorded and released soon.

That will be on Mask, Thundercats, and Silverhawks.

For now, I am TF2 and Mike with General Techno

and ChuckDog1999. Thank you for listening. Until

next time.