Transformers Animated Toys and the Evolution of Toy Design

Hello and welcome to the second episode of transformers

toy cast I am TFG one Mike and I'm joined by

general techno and proto man. Hello guys Hey,

you doing? I'm doing pretty good This is a it

was an idea that I brought up to you techno When

you guys were wondering what to do after smart

cast and you had mentioned something about doing

a news transformers news podcast and I kind of

didn't really mean to shoot it down but i kinda

did because there let's see uh... i know uh...

my buddy and i steve what we have one for protocol

empire call of all things transformers there's

t f w there's there's tons of transformers news

podcast so i figured we get something original

uh... you know something that really i have not

seen anybody do i mean other than you know youtube

reviewers but that's video and you have video

podcasting and no Video podcasting is five times

the work of audio. So basically, this is going

to be like going over to your friend's house,

taking one of your favorite toys with you, one

of your favorite Transformers toys. It can be

from any line, it doesn't matter. We're just

going to sit down and discuss them. So why don't

you guys tell the listeners a little bit about

yourselves. Whoever wants to go first, it doesn't

matter to me. I guess, Technos, since it was

your idea, you should go first. Alright, alright.

Thanks for setting me up like that. Well, I guess

that I'm Canadian Transformers fan I got back

into the I grew up on Beast Wars like a lot of

people my age and in the fandom anyway so and

yeah found beast machines all right got toys

from them birthday christmas sort of thing then

i fell out after beast machines i was vaguely

aware of some of the stuff going on the fandom

but i wasn't really following then i what actually

piqued my interest again at first was the some

trades of the dreamwave comics and then i really

got back in after uh the i started hearing about

the movie stuff back in uh I guess it would have

been 06, and then Classics came out, and that

started sucking me back in. Because there were

also all those great Cybertron toys that were

out around then. And I happened to have money

to spend this time. So a few years later, and

a whole ton of toys later, here I am. Very cool.

And what about you, Proto Man? Oh, man. I'm what

you call an old school fan. I've been around.

practically the entire span of the whole franchise.

When I was three years old, I went to see the

original movie with my neighbor. in theaters

in 1986. Nice. And it all started from there.

It all snowballed. I started, well I wouldn't

say collecting at the age of three, but I got

a lot of toys as a child. Obviously in 1989 when

those Ninja Turtles came out, the focus was shifted

of course. Very much so. Like anyone who was

from that era, and then of course video games.

And then it all fell apart there from the video

game era, but then... Like General Techno said,

when 1995 -96 rolled around and Beast Wars came

out, that kind of really brought me back. And

also conveniently in 95 -96 was when I first

got the internet. So I was also there when the

internet fandom first started on the first ever

Transformer message board, Alt Toys Transformers,

which was groups and BBS boards back then, before

we had forums and... YouTube and all the more

complex stuff It's a famous board and from there.

I found Benson Yi and his Message board and you

know I took it from there I haven't been out

of the fandom ever since then I have about I

think at right now. I probably have over two

thousand 200 Transformer toys. I'm a completist,

I buy everything that comes out, and I mean everything,

not just toys. Party favors, anything with the

Transformer logo. I'm kind of a Hasbro whore,

if you will. He has Transformers bedsheets, don't

lie. Wasn't there a story about a fishing rod?

Yes, I have the original G1 bedsheets of different

variations, but I didn't buy any of the new stuff,

although... I did buy the movie Optimus Prime

throw blanket, like one of those insulated ones,

for my girlfriend, because she likes to lounge

on the couch and stuff. It's an excuse for her

to rub up against Optimus Prime, I guess. Okay,

insert bad joke there. Yeah, exactly. Good thing

our joke isn't on this one. Isn't that the truth?

The fishing pole joke that Techno is referring

to is... kind of almost drew the line where I

when I went to the States once there was I was

at Target and they had a Transformers fishing

pole set which you know and at that point I was

kind of like oh, you know I'm crazy, but I'm

not that crazy and then my girlfriend turns to

me and she's and keep in mind my favorite character

in Transformers is hot rod and she said to me

I see where the joke's going now. Yeah, exactly.

She's like, didn't Hot Rod go fishing in the

movie? I'm like, what? Oh, fuck. And then I threw

it into the carriage. Anyways, to make a long

story short, I've been around for a while. I

have a lot of toys. I have a lot of knowledge.

I don't want to brag. I'm part of the staff of

the second largest transformer convention in

the world, TFCon. Yeah. And he's the goddamn

proto man, and then I'm the goddamn proto man

for anyone in the fandom who knows that small

tip you know little thing uh... yes so uh...

like i said uh... all there this is it's gonna

i want to keep this very simple most likely we

could feasibly due to episodes a month and probably

because i'm gonna be switching out uh... like

you guys could probably on the even episodes

and i have uh... pia and optimus courage on the

on ones i don't know yet uh... and the only reason

why for that is because of the scheduling in

and just having more than three people on a podcast

is very hard to control and very confusing And

I want this to feel like a more intimate type

of setting to where, you know, it's like three

or four friends get together and they basically,

you know, fan -gas them over their collections

and stuff like that. Fair enough. This can be

the Canadian episode. yeah so in episode one

which I still have yet to have Steve Megatron

upload to a feed burner yet we haven't actually

created the feed for Toycast yet but in episode

one I talked about G1 Astrotrain we did bring

up the the animated toy release news which we

can kind of discuss here I can't wait I will

still be buying those toys that that Rodimus

has got to be the most detailed car mode I have

ever seen. I looked at the picture of the car

mode and you can actually see the key lock and

door handle. I have a personal story actually

with that toy that's kind of hilarious. I don't

know if Techno knows about it with Derek Wyatt.

Share away if you can. I'm pretty chummy with

Derek Wyatt who's one of the art directors from

Animated and when the the Rodimus toy came out.

Derek and a lot of the fandom know about my obsession

with Hot Rod and Rodimus Prime. So after the

Sunday at BotCon... Derek managed to be able

to get the animated Rotomus toy out of the display

case to bring to his personal hotel room. He

then took a picture of it with his cell phone

and then sent the picture onto my cell phone.

So here I am, it's 8 p .m. at night, I'm all

depressed because I didn't get to go to BotCon,

and then I get a text message with a picture

of Derek Waya with this like smarky face holding

the Rotomus toy going, jealous asshole? The picture

is, if you look for it, it's somewhere on the

net. I uploaded it because I was just so shocked.

Now did he show you the entire figure in his

hand? What he did was he held it in vehicle mode

and he had like, he was holding it in the shot

with him with like a finger on his lip like Dr.

Evil, like you know, like Ma? Like you want it,

you know? Because me and him, we talk a lot whenever

he comes to TFCon and he knows about... you know,

the obsession of me with that character. Yeah,

very, very cool. Yeah, he was a great guy at

TFCon. Yeah, he's a really cool guy. True fan

through and through. So who wants to go first

with their picks? Doesn't really matter to me

either way. So, Techno, you started, I guess.

Alright, I guess that's... Well, in vein of the...

We've got the Revenge of the Fallen line out

now, which, yeah, it's the new big toy line for

Transformers, so... In the context of the movie

universe, well, I got the new Starscream toy,

which is great, by the way, but not to let it

fall by the wayside. I feel that someone should

bring up the merits of the original movie Starscream

toy. That is, uh... The first movie Starscream.

I've got the regular one, I've got the Deep Space

and the Deep Space one, and of course the Movie

2 Starscream. I've got them all right here with

me right now. I'm just missing a miss - I just

lost a missile a few days ago on this guy that's

probably down here somewhere, but... I mean,

it's a - Really, he's an underrated figure in

some respects. I mean, uh - The biggest complaints

about him that I had when he came out was, well,

there's the lack of hands, and there was also

the fact that he's got a jet that's got legs

hanging off the bottom of it. He's a very, very

kibbly jet, and it really shows that, uh... he

was designed without that much time really for

them to work with. One thing that I found interesting

well after the fact when I was flipping around

online and looking at some of the concept art

for the movie characters, when I looked at the

Starscream one and then I looked at the original,

not Deep Space, but the original one, I could

see how they came up with the design for that

toy, just because a lot of the paint apps and

color decisions are pretty much spot on to that

concept art. Like, he's that same shade of tan

on the concept art, he's got the knees painted

the same way, it's very very similar. Well, that's

pretty much a majority of the movie line to begin

with. This is why we're now getting movie toys

in Revenge of the Fallen that are more spot on

to the CG models, because these toys were pretty

much engineered along the same time that they

were being well -designed. And those first few

images of Optimus Prime that leaked onto the

internet... which were just design photos, those

were pretty much the basis that would be the

toys. And same thing with, oh god, Megatron went

through so many stages, you know? And as a result,

yeah, so that's, you have to realize, Hasbro,

what they do is they make the toys extremely

early. So you can only imagine how much... they

had to work with at the time. Even the comic

books by IDW, Alex Milne said that when he was

using references to do the movie adaptation stuff,

they only gave him so much to work with, so that's

why a lot of the designs in the comic books too

are inaccurate. Well, one thing as well with

the first movie line that needs to be remembered

is that the movie originally they were going

to launch it as a December movie, weren't they?

And Classic just created a field of stopgaps.

So they would have been engineering the designs

even earlier than before. I think that's part

of the reason why we started seeing the movie

toys as early as we did, because they had all

the designs done. With Revenge of the Fallen

we started seeing them early, but it took longer

for us to see our first designs. Exactly. Yeah,

I'm not really that into the movie toys, so I

really don't have that much to say about it.

I think the reason why I'm not into them is because

of the fact, okay, I understand why Michael Bay

wants every, you know, edifice of a robot showing,

like, you know, every part moves on him, but

why in the world would you do that for a toy

design? That makes no sense to me whatsoever,

and I just don't like... Seeing like the gray

robotic type areas in Well, I could actually

I could explain that all to you because I've

actually done a huge discussion about this it

pretty much To just sum it up quickly. It has

to do the difference between What we're used

to in transformers, which is Japanese designing

against what what we've seen in Beast Wars, and

in the American line, and in animated, which

is American designing, which is the movie also.

To give you an example, you've seen Robocop,

correct? Ed 209, who's the big ugly robot in

the first Robocop movie, notice his feet, and

the way that they are, they're kind of like the

tripod claw sort of feet. That sums up... how

Americans view robots very simply. And they apply

that kind of thinking to a lot of their robotic

designs because they think more practical. How

would it walk? How would it stand? How would

it balance? And they apply that to the Transformer

characters. That's why the movie characters have

those kind of claw feet and they have these pistons

in their legs and everything. Because an American,

when they design a robot, they kind of think

of how would it even be able to stand? The Japanese

on the other side of that fence don't really

think about that they think of more the aesthetic.

That's why when you look at Optimus Prime you

see a Gundam aesthetic because that's the way

that they think. And we've been raised so long

on Japanese aesthetic transformers from G1 to

a majority of G2 to all of the Unicron trilogy

whether it be Armada, Energon, Cybertron, the

classics versus all Japanese engineering. Only

Beast Wars was a change from that. And we sort

of just chopped it up to the fact that, well,

because they're animals, they look different.

But it was actually because they were American

designed figures, a majority of them. But that's

pretty much why a lot of people don't enjoy the

movie aesthetic is not so much because they didn't

try or they're going in a different direction,

is that it's Americans that are designing it.

And that's how Americans see robots. That's their

take. I think a good example of that would just

be looking at the movie Decepticons and just

their designs versus like the movie Autobots.

With the Autobots, they did make more of an effort

to make them more human and stuff, but you look

at the Decepticon faces. I've got most of the

movie Decepticons down here with me right now,

but... Yeah, well Starscream, you wouldn't know

that it's Starscream by looking at that head.

What gives it away as Starscream is the telltale

designs on the body, like he's got the swept

back wings, he's got the cockpit chest, he's

got the gatling guns on his arms. Now for Starscream,

what sold me off, I wasn't sure about the design

at first, what really sold me on his design was

both he worked in the movie and especially Alex

Milne's portrayal of Starscream in the Reign

of Starscream comic. His art of Starscream really

sold me on the character, and I'm a huge movie

Starscream fan. But yeah, the Decepticons are

just a good example. Or even from stuff I've

read about when the Takara designers were first

getting the designs back from Hasbro, or even

the Hasbro guys, they were getting stuff and

they were saying, yeah, this is way too far off

the mark from what we want with Transformers.

This doesn't look anything like Transformers.

And they made stuff like that prime mock -up

to show this is the kind of thing we're going

for. Yeah, I guess I'm just too used to the Japanese

toys then. I'm looking at animated Soundwave

and you see his legs, you can see that there's

supposed to be screws in there on the inside

of it and stuff like that. I understand that,

but the whole movie line is that they actually

show you the inside of the leg. It's like if

I... If somebody sliced my leg open and you could

see one of my bones inside my leg, that's the

way I look at the movie line and I just don't.

That's actually the new gimmick now with the

Revenge of the Fallen Toys is the MechAlive gimmick

where you could see internal parts moving here

and there. I don't wanna see that. It looks really

good on some figures. Some figures it's not that

well executed but I'd say probably the best the

best example I'd say there's two would be Starscream

because of the you turn his head and the gears

and the chest spin. It's really clever how they

engineered that in such a way that The gimmick

doesn't actually work until you transform them

and align the panels properly. And then there's

Leader Prime who, well, if you do that, it looks

like he's breathing just about because of the

way the chest slants up and stuff. It's like

he, it's mech alive. Yeah, he's like breathing,

that kind of thing. It's sweet. That was probably

inspired by what our podcast host over here has

to say because it's true. That's kind of the

gimmick and the design that they're going for

is to give that ability that these Transformers

are alive in the movie. And again, American designs

have that more practical view of that. Anyways,

we got kind of off topic on Starscream. Do you

have any other comments about your Starscreams

over there, Techno? Well, I mean, the biggest

complaints I had when I got them was the fact

that... Well, he had the big, bulky hands, as

I mentioned that before. The missile launchers

were really cool just in that he comes with six

missiles, which all fire, which a lot of figures

don't have that, have six launchers in one figure,

so that was really cool. And the main thing I

didn't like was the launchers are hair -triggered

launchers on this guy. It doesn't take much to

fire them off. I guess a final observation as

well, I really like Revenge of the Fallen Starscream,

but there's definitely stuff that I do like that

the first movie Starscream did better. Like for

instance, I think that the proportions are slightly...

ignoring the arms, I think that the proportions

are in general better because the legs have more

bulk to them, the legs look more like the legs

in the movie, whereas they're kind of more faked

on the new one because he transforms so differently.

And, although by the same token, the new one,

he does a lot less fakery in that the wings are

actually on the back, whereas they aren't on

the original. He's got a much more accurate head,

and he's got the hands, and his tail fins form

the crotch piece like in the movie. I mean, it's

still a very neat figure, but the first one definitely

has props, and the Deep Space version is especially

awesome. I can make a really really bad ass and

crotch joke right there, but damn that's horrible

I guess I'll go next I was I'm the type of person

and I found this out when I first started buying

the animated line I Most people know this I have

a mild case of cerebral palsy and my right hand

and foot turn in slightly and I basically use

my left hand for everything and For the most

part, when I was younger, I could pretty much

transform any of the G1 guys fairly easily. Animated

is for me, and I hate to admit this, I'm 29 years

old and I can't transform fucking toys for nothing.

When I first got Blur, I broke his legs off.

I didn't do it intentionally. It was by accident.

They snapped off. I twisted them the wrong way.

They completely snapped off. So I'm the type

of person that I'll buy two toys of whatever

ones I want. That way I can have one in alt mode

and one in robot mode. Just to cut you off there,

I own an insane amount of Transformer toys and

even that happens to me with animated toys. And

I think personally the primary reason for that,

it's not a personal thing to you. I think it's

something that's shared with a lot of Transformer

fans because the animated designs and how they

convert from one mode to another is vastly unique

and different than what we've been used to in

the past. A lot of G1 toys, transformations,

have very similar cues and ideas that are later

found in even a Beast Wars toy. How a chest will

just come down and be the front of the car. Animated

would have foe chests. Animated would have a

character who would be a car, but when he transforms

his chest would be the car, but it would not

really be... the front of the car, if you know

what I mean by like a photo chest. Yeah, like

Bumblebee. Granted, there's exceptions to the

rule. Jazz is a very G1 in transformation animated

toy. Grimlock. Yeah, or Grimlock. But then you'll

have characters like Blur, you'll have characters

like Prowl. Any motorcycle transformer always

has to use some kind of shortcuts here and there

to transform. Bumblebee had a lot of problems

in terms of quality control issues. So it was

something new that we weren't used to. So a lot

of people ended up, you know, snapping us stuff.

I know me personally, I have also. To be fair

with Prowl, he's pretty accurate in how he transforms,

but the thing that blew me away with the animated

designs, though, was when I first saw them, I

wasn't sure what to think with the designs. But

then we actually started seeing the toys, and

it became a matter of, holy crap, they got these

designs when these were, I think... the movie

designs were pretty challenging but I think that

these were just as challenging in another way

because that's another different departure from

the Japanese in that a lot of the stuff you look

at Transformers Cybertron they're all very technically

precise in terms of the CGI models and how they

transform and stuff but with animated it's a

lot more loose there's a lot more leeway and

you end up with stuff where you've got Some very,

very cool transformations. Yeah, it was a very

unique design. That's what I loved about this

line was when you would pick up a car from any

other TF line, you more or less never had to

look at the instructions because of the simplicity

of what you've been used to in the past. Everything

was relatively done the same. Same thing with

the classics line. I would never want to debunk

the classics line, but it has the same kind of

flow to it. But animated toys... how one mode

gets to another is a completely different adventure.

And that's what I love about it is how much engineering

went into it. A blur is a great example. Lockdown,

too. It's just little things that were never

done before but are now being tested and tried

with this line. I mean, I would have never thought

the animated Rotomus figure would be able to

be done considering that it would have to turn

into the same... Rodimus car that I've been used

to all these years, but they did it somehow Somehow

they did it and those legs you look at those

legs and you're like, where's the car parts because

you're just so used to that, you know, I Remember

when we saw shockwave back in season 2 when we

saw the upper body transform I saw that and was

like, okay I can see them doing some of these

shifting features in the toy but I can see how

they could do the head and the chest piece maybe

the shoulder pads but I didn't see the entire

toy morphing from one toy to another toy. I did

not expect that whatsoever. Shockwave is like

one of the best toys in the line because he's

got one of the best robot to robot conversions

they've ever done in Transformers. And that is

what's so amazing about that line is just the

amount of engineering that has gone on. And so

again, going back to you, it's just... It's completely

understandable where you're coming from, because

we were all not used to that kind of, I guess,

twisting and turning. For me, I just started

getting back into collecting about a year and

a half ago. And everybody knows this. I've said

this plenty of times. I am kind of ashamed of

it, but at the same time, I did what I had to

do to get my G1 toys back. I've spent over probably

$4 ,000 getting G1 toys back. You know off of

eBay and crap like that, but with sound wave

You're in my presence, so trust me it's you get

a pat on the back Animated sound wave first of

all why didn't they make him a tape deck second

of all The packaging on all of the animated line.

It says ages five and up level three conversion

difficulty. And I'm thinking, okay, you take

a ten -year -old or a nine -year -old or however,

you know, whatever, you take one of your kids

to the store to get these things, and the parents

look at it and like, oh my god, it's a... That,

to me, that would be, you know, that would be

a very much not -buy situation. But, long story

short, I had to go to Walmart to get another

blur. And the time before that I had went...

before I got him I had gone another time and

the animated line was pretty much emptying out

off of the shelves to get ready to get ready

for Revenge of the Fallen. So I went I found

like two different blurs which is fine and I

found one sound wave and I'm like I had just

seen human error part two. or the both human

error stories I was like alright fine I'll give

him a try because originally one of the reasons

why I didn't like Soundwave was because when

I first saw Sound and Fury I only saw the mini

version I never saw his his I never saw the full

version I have now but at the time I never saw

the actual full fully upgraded version of him

and I'm like I really don't want that so it was

like the last one there that day so I said oh

the hell with it I picked it up got it home I

see a couple of pictures of it with in the in

the car mode and I started trying to transform

the thing first of all he is a midget that this

cannot be a deluxe oh yeah I'm sorry it cannot

be uh... and that's one of my fears about rodimus

because when i saw the rodimus uh... robot mode

picture he looks pretty much the same size is

sound wave according to derrick wyatt he stands

next to jazz on the same footing so yeah he said

the transformation is similar too but i'll get

to it when i get to my uh... no that's fine but

i mean just And the reason why I say that they

look like they're similar in height is because

the way that Ronimus' legs look. They're basically

an orange version of Soundwave's legs. As far

as the way that they look. And that's why I thought

they were going to be another midget. But yeah,

I hate this toy. I cannot stand... I can't believe

I wasted the money on this thing. The coolest

thing about it is the laser beat guitar. That's

it. I mean I just don't like it at all. I could

explain that all to you if you would like. The

Laserbeat guitar actually, again, because Derek

Wyatt, who designed Soundwave, is a big fan of

Japanese mecha, the Laserbeat guitar is actually

a homage to another Japanese robot line called

Gau Geiger that had a character named Mike Sounder,

who I guess you could call the Autobot Blaster

equivalent in that show, and he had a guitar

that he would use as a weapon. There's a lot

of Gal Geiger references all throughout animated.

through the series, because Derek White is a

huge fan of that show. So it pretty much stems

from that. Why Soundwave isn't a tape cassette

player has more to do with the fact of how Hasbro

does things. They hate repeating alt modes. We

already had two Soundwave cassette toys that

were out in recent years, which was the titanium

toy, and then we had the reissue in the commemorative

series, aka an extension of the classics line.

So I guess that either they wanted to go in another

direction, Do something different that could

be used also because how many kids today know

what a taper player is? Yes, or they just felt

that you know what we did a tape of sound wave

Already twice before in the recent years. Let's

try to do something different and Then hey, you

know, we'll see what we'll do with the movie

line. Of course, we know what ended up happening

with that but Who knows, you know, we're getting

Soundwave yet again in tape form and another

reissue form for the San Diego Comic Con. Yeah,

but I mean, that's a reissue of an already existing

toy. They didn't change the mold on that at all.

Yep. But see, that's the thing, because it's

very hard to update a character that's based

on hardware of music. Again, we got iPod Soundwave.

That was our, here you go. We gave you what you've

been asking for all these years. Granted, we

didn't get CD Soundwave. We got iPod Soundwave.

It wasn't even a domestic release either. It

was a separate Takara thing. Yeah. It was just

a separate Takara thing, and we got it in three

different colors. Three. Yeah, three different

colors. and that was it so I mean who knows we'll

get something else down the line maybe maybe

one thing that I always say with with Hasbro

is never predict anything because they will throw

a left ball at us of any kind of craziness I

mean I want those figures desperately look who

Well, it's the same thing. We never got a Classics

sound wave, but who would have predicted a tape

cassette ravage that would come with how it's

true You know that was like you know like so

you know the seeds have been planted. Just wait

and it'll happen Love somebody at Hasbro if they

do a movie style lug nut I'm absolutely going

to lose it if someone does a movie lug nut I

just want to say right now, before we go any

further, the Transformers Toycast and Geekcast

Radio Network is no way in any way sponsoring

General Techno's love of Lugnut, because Lugnut

sucks. Hey! Lugnut is awesome. It should have

been AstroTrain, dammit. You got Blitzwing, what

more can you want? AstroTrain, I like him best.

Blitzwing can go jump off a cliff. But I mean

what but I mean like with sound wave I guess

they only wanted he is a tape deck in the show

even if Takara did Did a did a release got the

rights to it and did a show accurate tape deck.

I mean, you know, I don't know I just But that's

the problem. The problem was that that animated

was a American release show an American design

toy line and I mean animated even air in Japan

And the toys were never released there. So that's

the problem. When they have that kind of domestic

release, the control is in the Americans' hands.

And what they felt was that kids don't know what

a tape deck is. And Hasbro is not 100 % sold

on holding on to homages in G1 as much as Japan

is. Japan is willing to do that. They'll do homage

color schemes and re -release old toys. They're

like crazy. Just look at the stuff that they

release now. You know, any kind of adult line

over there. I guess, quote, adult line over there.

But in America, it's more important to sell to

children. And I could understand that perspective

because if you don't nurture the youth, They

won't grow up buying the product later if you

don't if you don't attract those kids look people

hated Armada But if it wasn't for Armada those

kids would have ran off and played video games

And that would have never touched you transformer

toys in their later age. That was the whole point

of ugly bright Simple toys because you have to

bring in children. Yes while Armada is out and

we're all raging at Armada They'll give us something

to keep us happy to they'll give us a classics

or a titanium line. So, you know But at the same

time, don't be angry if we get like, you know,

Bumble Spud or something. There has to always

be something to bring the kids in. Yeah, and

I will never buy the original TFA Bumble Bee.

I bought the Elite Guard version. I liked it

a lot better. It's a lot cooler. Fair enough.

To be fair as well with Soundwave's tape deck

mode, just to go back to that, that did make

it in toy form. It's called music label Soundwave

Spark Blue. But it's not the animated aesthetic

though. But it's a box. I mean, it's it's still

a designed after that. I mean we even got sonic

white sound wave inanimated How awesome was that?

Yeah, all right. Yeah They did a lot of homages

here and there. Thanks to Derek who was like

god of transformers dumb All right, so what's

your what's your pick proto man? I decided, I

guess for the first show, to go with the obvious.

I went with Henkei Rodimus. For those who aren't

familiar, Henkei Rodimus is the Japanese release

of Classics Rodimus. Now, why do I pick the Henkei

version over the Classics one? In my tireless

effort to get the most perfect, amazing homage

to the G1 Rodimus toy ever, I feel that the Henkei

one was a step up from the one that we got domestically

over here. The two major differences, those being

is the chest emblem is a lot more similar to

the original G1 toy and what is represented on

the TV show screen. And also the spoiler, instead

of it being just orange, was a beautifully gold

chrome. which I think really just changes the

toy's look right there in any mode. The last

thing being is all the translucent colors. In

the classics version, they were all a dark purple,

whether it be the missile, the eyes, or the canopy

for the cockpit, where the Japanese version was

a light blue. Again, another nod towards the

original G1 toy. Yes, I was going to say the

same thing. The light blue is really, really

good. I mean, I have the original as well, and

you can't see the eyes that well when it's light

piping. Yeah, with the purple one you can't see

nothing and I think that That was it was kind

of a mistake on Hasbro's part to go that direction

But either way Takara picked up the the pieces

and really put out an amazing figure It just

in that you know the tireless effort though to

achieve a perfect Rodimus Just to note the new

animated Rodimus toy that's going to be coming

out is going to go a step further in I quote

hot rod engineering in getting rid of the...

Because for years it's always been a question

of what could we do with the engine in the vehicle

mode. And in the original G1 toy they used to

put it behind Hot Rod's head. And it's not noticeable

from the front but if you look at the toy from

the side it's very noticeable. There's an engine

on the back of Hot Rod's head. When they made

the classics toy they managed to just, you know...

put it on his chest and that's it, you know,

we'll just act like it's not there. But now Animated

has managed to find a way to get rid of it in

flipping it, where there was a little compartment

where if you flipped it, where it's on his chest

but then you flip this little compartment that

the engine is on and it reveals an Autobot logo

instead and conceals... the engine, which is

a really cool idea that they did. But either

way, going back to what I'm originally discussing,

the Henkei toy is amazing. Right now it's the

best Rodimus figure you can get for your money

that represents the original G1 character. This

toy, unlike the mold in general, unlike a majority

of the other Classics and Universe toys, is more

trying to be like the original G1 design. A lot

of the other classics and universe toys are trying

to be more updates of the characters using different

design aesthetics, where this one is really trying

to be the G1 toy as best it could be and give

us modern technology. My only say I think part

of that might just be because of his design because

already in 1986 He was designed as a futuristic

car as a result. He doesn't look dated today

Yes, the design you could just take the design

tech it up a bit And it still looks like a really

cool car since there's still nothing on the road

like that. Oh very much so Yeah My only two I

only have actually two complaints about it and

they're very minor is the hen cave version Considering

all the paint that they put into it It would

have been cool if they actually put it a little

bit of paint on his little buzz saw there That

would have been I mean you could obviously could

pick up a set of repro labels and you know Put

the little silver on the buzz saw to be going

but it would have been cool if they put that

My only other complaint is just the toy itself

if you compare hot rod to any other car classics

or universe figure, whether it be the Side Swipe,

Sunsteeker, Streaker brothers. He's kind of short

compared to the others. Now, is that both of

them? Very short, actually. Is it the US and

the Henkei or just the Henkei? Yeah, they're

the same size. The mold in general. I find that

he's a tad shorter compared to a lot of other

classics and universe figures of the same price

point, of the deluxe price point. And it's kind

of sad, because I remember I displayed him next

to Side Swipe, and Side Swipe is like a head

and half his chest taller than him, and you're

like, wow, OK. Which brings me more, I guess,

it's just due to the fact that since he was an

early universe toy, excuse me, a classics toy.

that I guess they weren't really thinking about

scale for the later figures when universe 2 .0

began. Well, another thing too would just be

poseability compared to some of the other ones.

Because that's probably my biggest beef with

him. Yes. Poseability on the elbows is very limited.

Shoulders is pretty limited as well. And then

I guess even head size, his head is... Side swipes,

head is like twice the size of Hot Rods. That's

always been an issue with any hot rod figure

or action figure is Posability of the shoulder

area because of the spoiler and having even if

you take like a PVC figure of Rodimus There's

all there's always that kind of limited posability

because of the spoiler but that sort of comes

with the figure You know, like it's just bound

to happen just by his own aesthetics and how

he's designed But again, part of the reason also

why he's limited posability, he was kind of more

of an updated G1 toy. Where when you're going

from that era, you're bound to, you know, have

bricks. And I said this in the first episode

of Toycast with Pio and Optimus Scourge when

I was talking about Astro Train. Astro Train

has to be the most non -brick G1 toy ever. Astro

Train for me is the easiest toy to transform

out of the entire G1 line. uh... but going back

to rodimus and hot rod um... i have to disagree

with you a little bit i do like the u .s. version

i do want it uh... i haven't seen a picture of

henkei i probably need to look it up but uh...

and i know it's basically a uh... a direct uh...

redo of the mold but shattered glass rodimus

is awesome as well oh yeah of course without

a doubt he's got a goatee of course he's awesome

and it's painted on it's not something that is

just It done with whatever Yes, it's a great

paint scheme again also due to the fact because

bot con toys have a much larger budget When it

comes to how much paint that you can apply on

the figure So you get you get a lot of little

touches and details there. It's a gorgeous figure

that one And it's actually it's a better because

the Japanese also released it their own version

Yeah, they have a lot of erotimus using that

mold the Wild Rider one, and the only major difference

is they made a red face on him, which I think

kind of puts off the figure, but it's more a

homage to the Wild Rider character from G1. But

yeah, I heavily suggest check out some photo,

like some really nice photos. A good example,

go to Remy's Transformers. He always takes great

photo shoots of stuff. Just send me a link in

Skype or whatever. He has some beautiful... Oh

yeah. Because seriously, that gold spoiler and

the light blue clear plastic really just completely

changes the whole perspective of how the figure

looks. It really changes a lot. It's amazing

what chrome can do. Very cool. A question for

you, ProtoMan, though, regarding your Henkei

Rodimus. Have you had any issues at all with

the right elbow in yours at all? I own, and this

is pretty sad, when this toy came out, I bought

a case of them. And a case has six. So I have

multiples of them in various modes and poses.

And none of them have any quality control problems.

My only issue I think that I could find is a

mild looseness in the knee area when you turn

it left and right. Like you know when it swivels?

but that's about it all of them more or less

have the same uh... same quality although the

original classics figure i did have varying quality

control issues here and there uh... the risks

where it talks in and out were loose on some

and tighter in the others. The crotch area, again,

if you want to make a joke there, was loose in

some areas and tighter in the other. But the

Henkei One so far, and I own four of them open,

two that are mint on card, and none of them seem

to have any quality control issues. The one that

I keep very close to my desk in my G1 room...

Because, yeah, I've actually had a few... I've

got both the US and the Henkei One, and I've

had a few issues with them. When I got the US

one, I ordered just a whole lot of them online.

the whole first wave of classics. I get them

in, I transform them, and the pin in the classics

one on the right arm on the elbow, it's missing

the rough part. So the pin pops out. Really?

Yes, but that's on the classics one, correct?

The classics one I have always experienced some

kind of quality issues with the Rotomus. On the

Henkei one, interestingly enough, he didn't have

that problem, but it's a bit loose in that the

arm will droop if I put the cannon in there,

because it doesn't have quite enough friction

to hold it up. On the right arm, it does on the

left, but on mine on the right. But the other

weird thing though is the crotch, something screwed

up in the assembly. I've tried taking him apart

to take a look. But there's something screwed

up in the alignments that, when I transform them

into alt mode, the crotch isn't quite snapped

together properly. I think that they misaligned

a screw hole or something, just ever so slightly,

because... Yeah, I think you got a lemon. Yeah,

because, I mean, he'll transform into alt mode,

but not everything will go in flush. Not like

my classics one, everything goes flush, but not

so on this guy. Yeah, going back to Soundwave

from TFA, that was the other thing I had a real

problem with. Because I usually watch YouTube

reviews to, first of all, fill out figures if

I want to even buy them, and second of all, for

basically instructions on how to transform them,

because I never really read the instructions.

You can't read the instructions anymore because

they're nothing but visuals. Exactly, very much

so. Very much so. I will agree with that. I miss

the days of the trilingual instructions of Beast

Wars. Well, my sound wave when I first got him,

it took me about six tries, about 45 minutes,

to turn the waist around. To turn his whole chest

piece around to where it's supposed to be in

robot mode. It was so tight, and it still is.

That is tight. Yeah. If you've only got one hand,

that's especially going to be hard to do. Exactly,

yeah. He's a great figure. I really love just

how all the kibble hides away He's got the fake

to chest which looks good And I'd love the lake

transformation because it just how novel it is

and just how everything just Folds out of place

in ways you wouldn't expect But yeah, I'll agree

that that piece is a bit tricky to get in and

out. Yes very much so He does also have some

paint quality issues I found, at least with the

face, but that was mine. Mine has some minor

ones on the eye, but nothing noticeable. I think

my first Prowl was worse actually. I did exchange

a Prowl, but Prowl was definitely the worst in

terms of face paint apps that I've had. Mine

has, I'm looking at him now, mine has like one

blue spot on his mouthpiece, on his head. Yeah,

I because that was that was a comment I remember

him specifically when I picked him up and I transformed

him I looked online to see if anyone else had

problems He had the most paint problems from

all the reports on the all spark and TFW the

sound wave leader prime from Revenge of the Fallen

when I went to pick mine up I was looking through

about ten of them or so and I was having a hard

time finding one that had a perfect face paint

apps because there was usually at least a chip

around the center of the face plate where the

mole where, you know, the two halves of the face

are joined together in the mold there. Like,

right in the center of the faceplate, like, there

was usually a bit of blue showing through. And

I ended up getting one, but he's actually, I

haven't bothered to remove it or anything, but

he's actually got a streak of silver on the top

of his head, so. Yeah. Yeah, that's, that's kind

of weird. Some, some of the quality control issues

on some of them kind of suck. Um. Thank God we're

past the sticky paint syndrome, though. Alright,

well, I think we're going to wrap this up. I

really don't have that much else to talk about,

I don't think. So this has been Transformers

Toycast. I am TFG1Mike with General Tectail and

And we will see you next time from the GeekCast

radio network there There are several ways to

get in touch with us. I should have brought that

up and you can move this around and ending I

guess My Twitter is tfg1podcast. What's your

guys Twitter's? General techno no underscore

unlike my or space unlike my username on all

the fan sites And mine's a Protoman X because

some guy took Protoman and he doesn't use it.

That bastard. So it's a Protoman X. Just a quick

programming note. We will be doing alternating

episodes with hosts and eventually I will set

up a Twitter account for this and I will set

up a Gmail account too so the show can have an

actual dedicated email address. eventually. So

this has been Transformers Toycast. See you next

time!