Transformers Toy Picks and Mighty Mugs Discussion

Cliffjumper! Commence countdown! Five! Four!

Three! Two! Hello and welcome to the 24th episode

of Transformers toy cast. I am TF2 and Mike I

am your host and today I am joined by General

techno. Hello. Hello and the goddamn program

With the yellow scarf flapping in the wind Yeah,

this is episode 24 there will be one more episode

25 and then we are actually going to be going

on a little bit of a hiatus for a little while

probably until on a bullet January of 2010 just

because I have got so much stuff that I either

have to record pre -record whatever for tune

cast and M wire that and Outside of whenever

my pre -ordering of muddy mug shockwave. I'm

not getting any more toys. I've got to save up

for Christmas Stuff like that. So yeah toy cast

is on holiday break until next year after episode

25 releases which Most likely will be, maybe

next week. I'm not sure yet how that's going

to go. So how have you guys been? What have you

been up to, Techno? Eh, not too much. Not too

much at all. I got the Bruticus combiner just

this past weekend. The movie slash universe repaint

of the, I guess, Energon 1. So, good figure.

good figure indeed and i got one that i bought

a five pack of legends just for the repaint of

a warpath as a gut cruncher so which is awesome

by the way i've got a review of it that up online

that i did just for kicks so we're wearing my

halloween costume what are you going up to proto

man i'm actually in the same boat as techno that

same weekend i also got the straight away shootout

five pack and you also bought it for one figure

No, no, no, I bought I actually bought it just

because I like the idea of having got car puncher

and run amok You know having a swerve legends.

It's all you know, I love legends. You can't

go wrong with them Even repaints You can't go

wrong with them. I love them The only criticism

I had though when I was looking through the decos

as I was like wait This doesn't look like run

them up. This looks almost exactly like break

like the breakdowns color scheme I think that's

what they were going for, actually. Yes, it looks

like Breakdown, but then they renamed it because

of the Scout class. It's a possibility, but I

know that Breakdown, the name is registered by

Hasbro. I guess they just couldn't use it at

the moment because of another character. But

either way... Or they needed to keep Runamuck.

Or that, yeah, well that too. They haven't used

that in a while. They haven't used that since

Cybertron. Anyhow, and the other thing that I

did, excuse me, that I got was I picked up...

This is some vintage. I picked up Magmar from

the Rock Lords. From a vintage toy show. He's

one of the few Rock Lords I'm missing. That was

about it for my weekend. Not much. It was a pretty

quiet week. Just relaxed. Nice weather for once.

Mind you, the only Magmar I know is the duck

build of fiery Pokemon. This is not a Pokemon

show No, it's not, but it's not a rock show Save

that for the Armada podcast Exactly That's all

Armada ever was, was Pokemon with robots And

I never watched Armada, so All I've seen is Unicron

battles, so And that I've heard is the best part

of Armada, so I just watched that part and was

impressed See, honestly for me, when it comes

to Transformers DVDs Kind of the obsessive compulsive

must have them all and I am probably and I hate

to say this as much as I As much as I disavow

the unicorn trilogy. I'm probably going to end

up picking up all of the DVDs at some point Feel

so bad. I got it all I'd be tempted to get Cybertron.

There's stuff I didn't like about the series

from what I watched of it, but there's a few

things I did like. Namely, I liked Scourge, I

liked Starscream, I liked Starscream, and yes,

I know I said that twice. That was deliberate.

Yeah. And, I mean, there were a few, there were

some elements I did like about that series, so.

It's a really good series and it's Japanese incarnation.

Really like it. I watched enough episodes of

it to really hate kicker, but other than that

Not really any I didn't really pay any that that

was like my non -transformers years as far as

like after beat wars was done Or beast machines,

whatever after that was done. I was like, okay

time to move on to you know, something else and

And I really paid no attention whatsoever. That

was kind of me as well. Although I know with

Cybertron, a funny funny thing, I almost didn't

pick up Sideways' toy, which I'm glad I changed

my mind on simply because the fact that I watched

an episode of Cybertron that happened to be the

one with those humans on the spaceship and sideways

being trying to hunt them down. And I kept going.

You're a robot, you idiot! Flood the corridors

with poison gas! Problem solved! Duh! Yeah, I

am not saying - Or vent the oxygen! Vent the

atmosphere! They're dead! Yeah, I'm not saying

anything bad against the Cybertron toy line,

because obviously we wouldn't have half of the

BotCon toys that we have because of that line.

But the cartoons themselves, Armada, Energon,

and Cybertron, I just could not get into. Like

I said watch the original source material or

don't watch it at all That's what I always say

like every everything that most people have an

opinion on sadly is the Japanese Of the Japanese

stuff is the English dubs and again your hate

of kicker Partly stems from Matt Hill's poor

horrible Representation of the character. He

makes a great Kevin Keen and Captain N and it

ends there Matt Hill, who was famous for Captain

N, Carlos from Armada, who was the Mexican kid.

Not much else. Ironhide from... So I'm just double

-checking. No, no, it's not. It's Brad Swayley,

who did Kicker. That's what I thought. Oh, excuse

me, Brad Sway. Yeah, you're right. Although it

was funny, just because when I saw him at a convention

this past summer, and he was cut... He kinda

skipped over that, he mentioned that, but he

kinda knew what fans thought of Kicker. You could

tell by the way he was talking there. A lot of

people have vented their frustration on us. But

mind you, it probably helps that he did light

on the Death Note dev, and there's a lot of people

that love him for that. He's writing that out

pretty thick. See, I don't... And I don't blame

him either, given what voice actors who dub stuff

get paid. There are some voice actors... some

very few that I absolutely they may do one voice

and I absolutely cannot stand it and they may

do another voice and I can absolutely love it

so I don't necessarily put kickers characterization

in the way the character played out on the cartoon

solely on the voice actor you know they're given

a role they read the role I mean technically

it's the it's the right all not not the voice

actor I mean yeah if you want to put inflection

into the voice or whatever fine but I don't know.

It's because in Energon, his dub was played out

to be very whiny, very emo, didn't like the job

he was doing, where in the Japanese version he

was played out as kind of a badass character,

which is very common of Japanese teenage characters.

They're either extremely emo, or Gar badass,

you know, hot -blooded. And what was cool about

Kicker, at least in Super Link, the Japanese

version is, and this goes saying, including all

Transformer continuities, how many times have

you known a human character to, without the aid

of a mecha suit, kill a Transformer? And Kicker

has sliced a few battle ravages in half with

the energon saber, so... Well, to be fair, Sari

could probably do that, but we just haven't seen

her do that. Well, she almost did kill Bumblebee,

actually, so she can't count. Sari's also partly

Cybertronian. Yeah, so you can't count Sari because

she is... Kicker's got some sort of elements,

given the fact that he can detect energon, so

you can't really count him either, because he

has a little bit of primus in him. So yeah, you

can't quite count him either. I think if you're

going to allow the exosuits, you could count

Spike. Oh yeah, but Spike has never killed anyone,

that's the thing. But I mean, you know, I'm sure

he would go to that length if given the chance,

you know, if it was like the last possible resort.

Given, given. Well, what about Daniel taking

out all those nightbirds in the Collectors Club

comic, which nobody wants to remember? We all

know how that ended. Yes, but he still killed

the whole crapload of nightbird mechs. Yeah,

I guess so. And gave us an emo RC. Anyhow, I

think we should get on with the show. I love

these pre -show discussions though. Yeah, I actually

it's funny. I mentioned a while ago that Before

the actual like this is the actual show now the

general chat type of thing. I was actually thinking

about Just doing a free show Record where we're

just talking like a bunch of random stuff and

just have like a bumper in between the the intro

and And then the the pre -show clip so it'll

have the intro Something that says this is the

pre -show and then that that just totally random

pre -show Discussion and then of course this

part of the episode. I don't know. I'm still

kicked out on that uh... so we're going to go

with techno first uh... because i just want to

get the heehee uh... how am i going to phrase

this show on the road no not really getting the

show on the road i want to get the anguish out

of the way because you're going to be talking

about freedom lug nut no no no i'm not going

to be talking about merely lug nut i shall be

talking about atomic lug nut yeah i got him for

uh... I got him just as a matter of he happened

to be on sale. I was looking at other stuff on

BBTS to get like G3 trailer and a couple of a

Gurmagen revoltex, which I didn't have and Then

I was like, huh, they've got lug nut on sale

as well He was part of their big sale at the

time and they had him cheap So I was like I'm

not gonna get atomic lug nut given that I'm a

lug nut fan It'd be a shame for me to not get

one. It'd be a crime for me to not get one. And

that got further reinforced once I went out and

went to a convention and found a McDonald's lug

nut for a dollar. And then it became, okay, now

I absolutely know I'm glad I'm getting this figure

because now I can be a lug nut completist. Which

I now am, so. But anyway, so I got him in the

day before my birthday. Didn't open him up until

my birthday, actually, but. Have to say he's

really really nice. I like the original lug nut

lug nuts a mold where when I first saw the original

picks From prototype leaks. I didn't think too

much of it. But at that time I was kind of thinking

Based on reading his bio. I wasn't sure what

to make of him. Like he could be interesting

He could not be then I saw the episode where

he's introduced where he's properly introduced

and lost and found and at this point it became

crud hasbro just sold me another toy and yeah

atomic lug nut he's got a really interesting

color scheme in vehicle mode it doesn't work

quite as well there but it's interesting given

the fact that he resembles a world war two bomber

already he's called atomic lug nut he's got an

atomic symbol on his tail He's got shark teeth

painted on the side like the World War II type

deco or Vietnam or just any other war, which

they would put on a bomber, that type of stuff.

And yeah, he's atomic. He's a World War II -esque

bomber. And he's from a toy line which originated

in Japan and was probably designed by Japanese

guys. For some reason, this seems strangely ironic.

But anyway, yeah, he... It doesn't quite work

as well in vehicle mode, but he transforms the

same as the original Lugnut. But in robot mode,

he really looks great. I'm someone who's a big

Lugnut fan. I thought I would like the original

more, honestly. I didn't like the original Atomic

Lugnut picks. But once I actually got this guy

in hand and transformed him, I found myself thinking,

this guy looks a lot better than the original

Lugnut Deco. just because there's more going

on. I think it's just there's more going on with

him color wise in robot mode. Like he's got more

of a mix of colors. The yellow and the black

really offset the teal pretty well and he doesn't

have light piping. He's got a painted eye instead

which works because light piping doesn't work

whatsoever anyway. So you can actually see his

eye properly now. And yeah, he's got great variety

and because of the fact that there's the Atomic

logo and a few bit of other red decal on his

act on his Mace his war mace actually looks really

nice. There's Yeah, there's three different.

There's three different colors on his war mace

and it's all done up really well This is a figure

that was done with the robot mode in mind ahead

of the vehicle mode in mind And it really shows

this guy really looks awesome in a robot robot

mode, he looks like a powered up lug nut. To

add in some stuff, I guess, I actually really

like this paint deco over the original, even

though the original is what the show represents.

The colors that they were actually going for

was they were actually trying to be pretty accurate

to a later paint scheme that was used for the...

because what he is, he's a B -29, which is the

actual plane that held the big boy. the little

boy which was the actual bomb used on Hiroshima

so calling him atomic lug nut is really a punch

in the the groin of the Japanese it really seems

like well we all know it was clearly intentional

it was clearly intentional when they did this

but yeah like it's it's a really good figure

I like this paint scheme over the original If

you definitely have to pick up the mold, that's

the one to get. Even though the other one is

the show used mold colors, this one is a lot

better. Yes, I completely agree with that. And

I say this is a huge Lugnut fan. Yeah, I'm looking

at it now. And again, my main complaint about

and I really don't have a whole lot of complaints

about animated anymore. I thought at first like

the first two seasons because I wasn't really

paying attention to it. I was just bashing the

show completely because until season three I

was really not impressed. The end of season two

is when I started getting impressed and of course

I went back and I looked at it and I looked at

it more carefully and I watched the show on DVD

because I have the DVDs now and well of the ones

that are released season one and season two.

And I really enjoy the show now I think my only

complaint about the show outside of dirt boss

who is basically just a ripoff of Burgess Meredith's

Rocky portrayal No, I thought he was just more

stereotypical gangster mob boss I would have

said Joe Pesci, but yeah that works too. No if

you know Joe Pesci was one Joe Pesci was mix

master That's true, you're right. Okay, but if

you look at Dirt Boss and you go back to Rocky

and watch the Rocky films and the role that Burgess

Meredith played in those as the trainer, it's

the same. It's pretty much the same thing. My

only complaint about Animated is the fact that

they did not fucking use Astrotrain, they used

this dumbass called Lugnut. It's always been

Blitzwing and Astrotrain. Why the hell they felt

they needed to put this piece of shit in here?

I have no idea. And if by always you mean one

show, then okay. Well, it's always been known

as Blitzwing and Astrotrain for some odd reason.

Well, from comics it was all three of them at

once actually. They always put them they always

put them in a triplet in the comics actually

so it's no proto man You mentioned octane, you

know octane's are right. He didn't replace either

one of the characters So he was just an add -in

Well, I think I feel that Lugnut was kind of

the same role as in what the bulkhead was He

was one of those, while he wasn't a new name

to the franchise, he was a new character coming

into the team. Because you look at the Autobots,

you had a Ratchet, a Bumblebee, a Prowl, and

a Prime. But then you had a Bulkhead, which was

a name that we did not hear except for Energon,

and it really, well, to get complicated, he was

supposed to be a Springer homage, anyways. But

yeah, Bulkhead was the new name, and the big

guy. And then you look at the Decepticons, and

it was the same thing. You had a Blackarachnia,

you had a Starscream, you had a Megatron, names

you were familiar with. And then you had a Lugnut,

which again, was a name that aside from a Cybertron

motorcycle repaint, was more or less a new name

to the franchise. And he was also the big, strong

guy. So I guess maybe it's the same thing. They

want to give you some new, they want to give

you some old. And I don't blame them for that,

because I mean, unless you're a G1 purist, it's

kind of like how Armada reinvented the name Red

Alert for us. Where prior to that, Red Alert

was just the sideswipe repaint who was paranoid.

And then Armada came around and gave us our different

kind of Red Alert, and we had a different interpretation

of the character, and it's kind of the same thing.

You know, we're given new characters, and we

have different interpretations now of what the

name is attached to. I don't mind Lugnut. I mean...

I think from a design standpoint they kind of

put him in there because they could have put

astro train but Maybe they just wanted to have

something new. I mean granted. He's just pretty

much a an inferno Beast war but I think they

wanted the type of the I think that the thing

was is they probably looked through they wanted

the loyal minion of Megatron type thing and wanted

a big brutish Astro train that's not astro train

AstroTrain is a transport, first and foremost.

Plus the thing is, AstroTrain is kind of a product

of the times as well, I'd say, in terms of the

fact that nowadays among kids, to be perfectly

honest, I look at AstroTrain, it's like he turns

into a space shuttle. Space isn't quite as cool.

It isn't quite as iconic anymore as it might

have been like 20, 25 years ago when the space

shuttle was around. And then with trains, It's

a steam locomotive and train collectors are generally

an older crowd nowadays. Well, it's not only

that. Keep in mind how animated handles the triple

changer idea to begin with with Blitzway. Already,

would you want to really double up on that character

idea and gimmick with another character? Yeah,

their idea right off the bat for the triple changer

was to have a character... Well, originally the

idea was more of a character who can turn into

anything, but then they ended up settling for

a triple changer once they realized how unfeasible

that was. Yeah, so, I mean, in the perfect world

everyone gets what they want, but sometimes I

could always take a step back and see, you know,

what they were kind of hoping for. Mean we trust

me that if you want your astro train, there's

plenty more to come in the future I know it that's

a property that Hasbro will never get rid of

I mean, oh, yeah, but we got we got a henkay

We got a classics repaints. We got you know,

the reissue that we even had we had the club

figure, you know We'll see plenty more astro

train in the future Yeah, I don't doubt that

either so yeah final thoughts on atomic lug nut

before we move on? Well, he's a figure who's

incredibly politically incorrect when you think

about it. Oh yeah, that's why animators talk

fast. He's a very insensitive deco and I'm sure

that the Japanese designers who did this would

probably do a double take when they saw pictures

of this deco and the theme of the figure. But

Hasbro had the balls to release it and it's the

best lug nut figure out there and I really love

this guy. Yep, he's really awesome You know Megatron

I just don't like the and I said a reason why

I don't like the character of lug nut is because

he was basically the Non -beast Jill form of

inferno from Beast Wars and I could he was inferno

with a brain No, no He's fertile had far less

competence than lug nut ever had and I'm an inferno

fan. Yeah, well Anyway, that's a whole other

episode topic. So why don't you go next, ProtoMan?

What are you going to be talking about? All righty.

I'm going to be talking about a figure thanks

to my buddy Gogdog from the TFW boards. I managed

to pick up the 2009 Thunderclash at BotCon 2009.

I had a boxed one and I wanted to have an extra

one also and so my good buddy Gogog hooked me

up with his loose one that he got. So I'm gonna

be doing a BotCon 2009 Thunder Clash. Well, history

as I always do first. Thunder Clash was originally

a UK exclusive character from 1992. He was the

leader of the Autobots of that year. Because

that was the dry spell that was going on during

generation one in between to generation two and

he was a If you will optimist esque ultra Magnus

esque kind of character Kind of looked like a

Magnus in vehicle mode kind of looked like an

optimist Magnus and robot mode It's hard to say

what they were going for exactly But that's the

kind of character he was and being a UK toy filled

with tons of gold plastics, tons of neon colors,

tons of translucent pinks. Just an all -around

wacky toy. That being said, when they were announcing

that they were going to do Thunder Clash for

the BotCon 2009, a lot of people were expecting

to get these wacky colors, translucents, golds,

and all kinds of craziness. And what mold that

would be used. Now, we were all kind of expecting

them to use the landmine mold, because Thunderclash

was the leader, so we were expecting him to be

the big figure of the set. But in the end, they

went for the Energon Rodimus mold, which I guess

is also a good take, because they needed to use

a truck. But I think the big complaint that comes

from him is the colors that were chosen. Now

again, we were all expecting the UK colors. the

UK logo of the wings on the chest and everything,

but we didn't really get that. We got something

that was more of a turquoise used and whites.

There was little suggestions and homages to what

was the original toy. We did get some copper,

gold in places here and there and on the face,

although his original toy was very, very, very

gold on the face. This one's more of a copper.

We got some kind of eagle on his chest, but it

wasn't the same design that was used on the original

UK toy. In all honesty, if this toy came out,

but they didn't put a name attached to it, I

wouldn't have guessed Thunderclash. I would have

just kind of tried to figure out something else,

but it definitely gives a mild vibe if someone

tells you it's a Thunderclash homage, but it

really doesn't give it off too much. As for the

toy itself, stand alone, homages aside, it's

a not bad toy. I mean, the Rodimus mold does

have its flaws here and there, but it's nothing

too much, you know, that's a problem. Limited

articulation, big feet, you know, it does the

Super Link gimmick, or the Power Links gimmick.

Paint scheme -wise, well, again, they were kind

of ugly. It's turquoise, it's blue, it's copper.

color that I could actually say looks awesome

on it is the gun that was originally a translucent

orange verodimus on this one is a deep translucent

blue and I think it looks gorgeous I think that's

probably the nicest thing of the entire figure

is this translucent gun which was a very common

thing in the Super Link line a lot of weapons

were clear translucent plastics I think the only

other thing I just want to comment on is that

the only other thing that really sucks about

this figure, and I've noticed this with other

people, including me, who own two of them, is

that 50 % of this figure that was released in

the market had a lot of QC issues. The Autobot

logo on his chest was tamponed on crooked, so

half of the logo is a little higher than the

other half. Also, the tampo quality... was really

cheap, so a lot of times people got their figures

in the bag with the logo already somewhat scratched

off. He suffered from a lot of those QC issues,

which is pretty sad considering how much you

pay for a BotCon exclusive normally. But it's

funny because only 50 % of these have the problem

and another 50 % seem to be perfectly fine. Me

too, I have one that's perfect and one that's

eh, you know? But all in all he's an okay figure

I wouldn't suggest shelling out the full price

for him. I see him sometimes go for like 129

on eBay I mean really put that money elsewhere

if you can but if you could get them for like

40 bucks or 50 bucks Yeah, sure. Why not? He

has a little bit of history behind him and a

figure what history is always fun to own You

know, hey, it's a bot on exclusive might be worth

something one day maybe I doubt it's not yeah

anyway what being optimistic i'm i'm looking

at the image on on t f wiki here and what is

his old mode supposed to be a looks like a cross

between a uh... uh... a tow truck in a double

truck is what what they were going for with the

original rodimus they were going for like these

like super trucks which are like these trucks

with the huge spoilers on the back these actually

do exist and they existed as early as the eighties

It's pretty much if a truck didn't have its trailer

and instead it was trying to be like high performance

It would have a spoiler instead and there's actually

a go box toy that also has This exact same design

The name escapes me at the moment, but uh that

actually is the same alt mode completely Yeah,

it's a it's an actual like real -life alt mode

It's just that a lot of people aren't familiar

with it. What's crazy about it that's really

weird is that this toy here actually has a hitch

in the back. Which always made me wonder when

the Energon toy was invented, did they have an

intention for a trailer? Interesting. Which is

a kind of a big tease. Well, Classics Prime had

a hitch. Yeah, I guess so. But Prime always sooner

or later has to have a trailer. Yeah, but they

had no plans of making it. With the Energon Rodimus,

it's a little less of a need, if you will. So

the fact that it even existed really made me

raise an eyebrow. Now with this toy, yeah, you

know, Thunder Clash is legendary for his mobile

battle station, which almost is more important

than the actual figure itself, which is lacking

here in this case. I really think they should

have used the landmine mold instead, because

then he would have had a mobile platform. Yeah,

I kind of find it weird that they didn't that

they completely passed this up I mean they could

have taken like the landmine mold and just redo

the head to make it look very Optimistic, you

know looking and make it like thunder and I think

it would have worked great, but they completely

wouldn't have gotten land shark You know what?

When when we were getting all those names, we

all thought land shark was coming from shark

to con So yeah, I did as well. So I was really

expecting that Landline mold to be thunderclash,

and I was a little disappointed I mean not because

it not because they used erotimus mold or something,

but it's just I Think it would have just been

the better choice. I mean just from a design

standpoint, but whatever it's in the past I mean

they made a lot of mistakes that year 2009 when

it came to mold choices, but yeah right now They're

kind of thin on the bolts. They could use I mean

2010 is definitely going to be interesting to

see what they could do Oh, I'm curious to see

what they're going to collectively be able to

pull out of their rear ends, given the fact that

they've got just about nothing they can use.

They've got nothing now. All they've got left

is armada and energon molds at this point, really.

Unless they want to swallow their collective

pride and do animated stuff, because I've heard

that the people, I've heard rumors anyway that

people in the club aren't exactly, the people

who run it aren't exactly animated fans themselves.

We're not going to see no animated in movie.

But you know what? It's going to be really interesting

seeing what they're going to do. It's really

thin right now, like when it comes to molds.

So I mean, hey, whatever. We'll probably all

still love it or hate it. But at the same time,

they don't have much to choose from anymore,

which is a real shame, because... What about

with Daygoat's Mold Beast Machines mode? Mold?

Anything's possible. It really is. I mean, we

have these high expectations of them using Unicron

Trilogy stuff in classics. But yeah, hey, if

they go really far back, if the mold is available,

I wouldn't mind, you know, seeing a hecka, a

cheetor used again, or anything even for that

matter. I was thinking the Viacom designs. Reuse

those Viacoms, because the Viacoms were all very

good toys. Yeah, it's true, but we'll see what

happens. Yeah, I'm definitely looking at the

Energon Rodimus. I like that one more than I

like the BotCon version. Oh yeah, a lot of people.

Well, that was the original colors. That was

its intention. That character's representation

also was pretty cool. in the Super Link version.

He kind of had his own private team of Autobots

called Team Rotomus. That's why I remember when

it first came out, I was absolutely ecstatic

because we had not gotten a Rotomus figure in

years. And by years, I mean Targetmaster Rotomus

in America. So this was a big thing to get this

Rotomus. And, oh, I think I own like four of

them. Minton card, but I own the loose ones.

And... I hope Hasbro's not listening, I own the

prototype. I actually bought it from a shady

Chinese guy whose name will remain nameless,

but yeah, I own the prototype of it also. Given

they haven't cracked the hammer down on certain

YouTube reviewers, I kind of doubt that they

really care all that much about who owns the

products. I don't want to go on I don't want

the proto man name to go under bad raps with

Hasbro. Anyways All right Mike, what do you got?

Got the well until my muddy mug shockwave Comes

in which it needs to like now. But anyway, we'll

do a shockwave episode when that happens. Yes.

Um, we will Because you know what, I love Shockwave

too. I think I might have done animated Shockwave

already though on the show. Oh, fine. Do Shockblast,

find something. I have the Mighty Mugs Optimus

Prime. It's the last one that I have not reviewed

yet as far as Mighty Mugs that I do own. Now

I'm looking at his thing here on the TFWiki.

And then it shows two versions of him. They show

what appears to be the original version and the

exclusive version. One of them looks shinier

than the other. Need an explanation? Yeah, exactly.

Okay, the shiny version was a San Diego Comic

Con exclusive in 2009. All it was was they...

And it's pretty sad, really, because, I mean...

Pretty much any oh comic -con was like we want

a mighty mugs exclusive. We want it to be done

of the optimist prime and Instead of like I mean

honestly, they could have done ultra Magnus They

could have done black optimist prime, but instead

they just decided to do optimist prime but shiny

And I guess they were maybe hoping more for name

value rather than it being a new character, right?

So I mean, that's all it is It's just it's a

it's a really overpriced mighty mug that but

that you know in a couple of years It's gonna

be really cheap on eBay. Anyways, because not

a lot of people bought it heck It worked for

Malibu state. It worked for Malibu Stacey Mind

you were that word that's pretty much what works

for repaints nowadays and that Hasbro gives them

all new head gives half the repaints They do

nowadays new heads and then that gets people

going. Holy crap with this paint scheme in this

head. It looks awesome Yeah, um, you know when

I originally started looking for the mighty mug

stuff. I don't know I don't even know why I started

looking for mighty mugs I I have no idea but

I just got this complete obsession with these

things and I You know what it is, you like G1,

and when it comes to G1 stuff, that's definitely

one of the things on the shelf at Toys R Us that

is G1. Yeah, I mean, that's, you know, when we

were talking the last episode, you don't buy,

you're not gonna buy a muddy mug figure, whether

it be Transformers or whether it be Star Wars

or Marvel or whatever. You're not gonna buy one

of these things for your eight -year -old nephew.

Yeah, clearly not. They are for collectors. They

are for display purposes. And yeah, you can kind

of play with them around and stuff like that.

But I actually have three Optimuses on my little

computer monitor station here. I have the Mighty

Mugs version. I have the G1 Optimus. I have my

TFA Voyager. And I think that the Mighty Mugs

version has probably the closest, obviously,

because it is G1. The details they put in these

things are very, very cool. If you look, I don't

know if you guys... have either one of these

handy, but people will put G1 Optimus, the original

G1 toy, and the Mighty Mugs Optimus side by side,

looking at their sides. On the Mighty Mugs Optimus,

the wheels and the silver, I guess you could

call it a gas tank on G1, is there in the design

of the leg. Oh yeah, they definitely went with

all the details. They went right down to the

silver... the silver armbands, if you will, that

were used on the original G1 toy also, which

was represented by a sticker. You know, every

little detail was left in there, which is pretty

damn cool that they went to that extra mileage,

because they could have done something that was

a very simple repaint, but instead they went

for something that's really nice. Oh yes, very

much so. As far as his arms go, I'm just now

noticing this the G1 Prime has Autobot stickers

on both arms So does the Mighty Mugs one, but

I don't ever remember in the cartoon optimus

having the Autobot logo on both arms I remember

him having it on his left arm on his like upper

arm like right above his elbow Right right, so

I think it was a nice add -on for them to add

in the the additional of both logos on both arms

And of course he's very accurate when it comes

to the back of him as far as it does have like

little gray things for what is supposed to be

the smokestacks and stuff like that. It's even

accurate on his head. Oops, there goes his gun.

As far as the back of the G1 version's head and

the Mighty Mike's head, they're very similar.

I believe I have the original version, I don't

have the San Diego Comic Con version, which I

actually like. Yeah, the Comic Con one is shinier,

but whatever, doesn't really matter. You know

what it is? The comic -con one is almost more

of a maroon. The pictures don't really do it

justice. A lot of the pictures that people see,

it's those official press photos. The actual

one, the red is more of a shiny maroon and it's

not as nice. Yeah, no, I'm glad I have this one

then. Yeah, that one's a lot better. When I originally

got my Wave 1 Mighty Mugs in, I was... Because

three out of the four set in wave one have guns

Bumblebee is the only one that does not have

an accessory weapon I believe his accessories

are his horns Which actually they brought that

over with jazz to the jazz mighty mug that's

coming out has the horns as well Optimus is the

only one that you can turn his gun around in

his hand so the barrel is facing his head So

it's like he wants to commit suicide. I don't

know what makes me think of this shit It's I

just I was messing around and I'm like, oh I

just I just pulled my sound wave out and I've

got him pointing his barrel to his chin Yeah,

I mean I've got the optimus here and it comes

like right to the bottom it doesn't even touch

really the bottom of the actual where the head

is I didn't really try it with the other ones

of course you really can't try it with Megatron's

cuz it's I just turned his can around 180 degrees

at his face okay so yeah Megatron and Soundwave

can do it and Starscream Starscream can't because

his guns are painted on so I don't have Starscream

or Grimlock I've been meaning to get them i'll

get they're great i think i'm honestly like i

own the mall so far i think star scream is easily

the best of the bunch the first piece of it Because

you just, you know what it is? Something like

Mighty Mugs is just made for someone who has

that smirk. You know what I mean? It's just smirk.

It's just like a toy like that that's supposed

to be like kind of cute and small and pudgy and

then you got like the little Starscream smirk

on it. It just, it works for that. And then the

wings complete the look as well. The wings make

it, make what would be an okay figure and then

they just add it into a whole level of awesome.

It's just that that's so far. It's definitely

the best although I will agree with Mike that

shockwave when it comes out I really look forward

to that one too, especially with the hand the

fact that they actually went the extra effort

They actually made the hand too. Oh cool I might

have to get that one just because I have I only

have the Decepticon ones but just to get myself

the original cast of Decepticons, I've got the

holy Trinity right now with Megatron Sandwave

Starscream, but I could use to have the The hapless

lackey who they left behind on Cybertron Yeah,

um the only thing that worries me about the shockwave

one is I don't know if you guys have have looked

at my my Skype image lately, but I've I've kept

it up there because My only concern is his purple

on his actual body like you have prime like on

his on the on his head He's got the blue and

stuff And he's got, Prime has got some lines

and stuff to show like the ears and stuff like

that, but I'm hoping that the Mighty Mugs shockwave,

I'm hoping that the purple is an actual true

purple to what the G1... Well, again, like the

picture you have is the press image. Yeah. Never

rely on those. Usually those are actually photoshopped,

so... You know like I mean if if we believed

press images then we would be not excited about

animated Rotomus We would I I mean again the

press image that you know of of the again the

San Diego comic -con Optimus Prime looks absolutely

nothing in terms of what the actual one is Yeah,

so my my thinking with press images is that if

something looks silver unless there's not very

much of it It's probably great plan painted gray

plastic But then by the same token, photos can

make things look very different depending on

the lighting. I won't say much more, but there's

a certain leaked figure which looks very different

depending on which photographer took the pictures

of it. Yeah, I'm actually looking in my photos

folder here from my Transformers Toy Stuff stores,

the Mighty Monks folder. On TFW posted the story

of... Someone having mighty mug shockwave in

hand in box in box pictures, and I have that

and I as soon as I find escape window here Well

my main concern about shockwave I'll just mention

this when I first saw the pictures I'm just worried

at how he's gonna look simply because Shockwave

traditionally has the very rectangular flat head

and I'm just curious how that's going to translate

to a big round head like the mighty mugs because

it's completely contrary to his head shape You

guys well, I mean look at prime I just sent an

image in the Skype window, so if you want to

accept that, that's... Yep, I'm accepting it.

I mean, when you look at Prime, Prime has a specific

samurai -defined head. Instead, they went with

the generic Mighty Mug round head. But it works.

You know, and it's the same thing with Soundwave.

They could have went with Soundwave's, like,

again, horned kind of head. but it works you

know yes but the difference is they still have

the general same type of head proportions whereas

shock waves is completely alien in that his is

a lot like theirs are taller than their wider

shock waves is uh wider than it's taller traditionally

Oh, yeah, definitely. But you know what? It has

the octagon -ish shape on the front. It has the

gleaming single eye. He has his hand. It's shockwave.

It's cute. I love it. Looking at this picture

now, I think that the big thing that I wasn't

sure about was because the original one, when

I saw the pictures, I didn't see the hexagon.

the lines draw outline drawn around his head

so it looked like they just had the hexagon cut

out without actually drawing any border lines

on it or anything yeah and again like for a man

said looks a lot better yeah well again that

that's like for a man said you know you get official

images or press images or you know majority of

those are photoshopped and glossied up um but

yeah looking at the inbox image yeah dissect

look Looking at this what I love the most is

the fact that I'm guessing his chest is the same

size He's using the same body type as all the

others But the way that they did his chest actually

makes his chest look like the G1 toy in that

how it just juts out. It works. It really does.

It's a great trick of perspective. I'm looking

at this and going, holy crap, this is so clever.

The only thing, the only thing that's a shame

about this box, this minted box one though, it

actually hides his extra hand, which is like.

Yeah, you can kind of see it, but not much of

it. Which is unique to this mold, which is a

real shame because that's, that should be the

seller right there too, is that this is not just

another like optimist. Prime, if you will, repaint.

This is a completely unique mold in that arm,

which gives them that trademark arm. That's more

the fault of the Mighty Mugs box design, which

obviously didn't plan for, oh, what if we do

Shockwave in a couple of years? Then we're screwed.

And see, the other thing with the Mighty Mugs,

because I believe when people that are listening

or you guys can correct me if I'm wrong, The

Mighty Mugs were originally a Star Wars thing.

So Star Wars... Yeah, they started... it was

first started with Star Wars, it was Darth Vader.

Right, exactly. And then Darth Vader did so well

that they just expanded the entire line. Right.

And then it went into Marvel characters, it went

into Transformers, it's a lot of... and G .I.

Joe to my knowledge also. It did. And I think

again, like Techno was saying, with the way that

the box is designed, you know, the other image

that... they have available is this one here

which is actually the back of the box I believe.

I just put that in the Skype window and it does

show his gun in the on the back of the box but

not the inbox actually and again that goes back

to the box design where it showing more the right

side than it is the left. What I would have liked

to have seen with these images if Whoever this

person was that took these and submitted these

to TFW or you know what? I think it was from

like another Transformers website that submitted

them to them. I don't know I would have liked

to have seen the the diagonal View of the box

because if you take the money mugs boxes and

you hold them at an angle To see the full profile

view of the character on the box In Canada, we

all get Optimus Prime. But yeah, the Americans

get really nice boxes. Wait, you guys don't get

characters? Oh yeah, you didn't know that. Okay,

I see in Canada, Mighty Mugs all come in Optimus

Prime boxes. Are you serious? Yeah, I know, it's

really sad. It's really, you know why? Because

they're too lazy to do the special. Okay, here's

a little thing for all the American listeners.

Titaniums, the three inches, all come in generic

packaging, not the radically beautiful packaging

you guys get. The six inches, same story also.

We get a generic box. The outsides, yes. Yeah,

the insides were different. The inserts are unique,

yes, but the outsides are not. We get again another

generic thing. And it's the same thing with Most

transformers, we get cross -packaging. We don't

get unique tech specs on the back. We get advertisements

for other stuff. And in the case of Mighty Mugs,

which really sucks, especially when you're skimming

through a bunch of them trying to find the character

you're looking for, it's all Optimus Prime on

top. Although, you know what I found interesting,

though? I'm wondering if Hasbro Canada is moving

away from that for a couple of reasons. First

of all, there's the G .I. Joe figures, which

all have the unique boxes. yeah but and then

also I noticed this when I was at Toys R Us earlier

this week I was looking at some of the Star Wars

stuff the Clone Wars stuff is all generic packaging

but the latest Sega collection wave it uses the

same packaging as the American ones it's like

I mean literally like there's no French there's

no French on this box on oh that the French on

this box the bio is probably in English What

will probably happen is it will be released with

unique packaging, just not in my home province

of Quebec. Yes, I'm just saying. I'm amazed because

they'll probably do like the GI Joe ones did

and include an insert. What Hasbro did for the

bios on those is they included an insert with

it in the other languages. So really, the French

collectors really have it better off because

they don't have to keep the whole package in

order to get the bio. But you know what was amazing,

Mike, also, what they did with the Optimus Prime

packaging. was they put a sticker of the name

of the character on each box to differentiate

it. Oh God. Yeah. So they had to like stick on

Soundwave on the Optimus Prime box. I know it

was so ghetto, it was really bad. You know, it

was such a split second decision to review TFA,

or not TFA, TF Muddy Mugs Optimus. I completely

forgot to go get the box out of the other room

and I'm not going to go get it now because I

actually like talking about the boxes for these

because... Yes. prop is is the unique face for

each figure at least for us Americans and I would

have to say even though I don't I don't have

him yet I'm gonna get him eventually I would

say probably out of all of them the two weakest

ones are Bumblebee and Grimlock Grimlock looks

pretty good when I've seen him in stores just

because of the sword and he looks like Grimlock.

Yeah, I know I mean the design is great a lot

of the implements cuz uh A lot of the implements

on each one of them, like if you look at the

Soundwave one, there's a lot that they took into

account into designing it. Yes. Shockwave, I

mean, hell, putting his gun arm there. The forced

perspective is the really nice part on Shockwave.

That was the unexpected bit that makes the joy.

Oh yeah. But I don't know, I just... I will agree

with the Bumblebee for sure. He is the weakest

of the bunch. He's a mid... I think it's, you

know what it is, lack of accessory for one. And

I guess, I don't know, maybe taking something

that's cutesy and already applying it with something

that's cutesy, maybe that didn't work, who knows.

Yeah, when I first saw the photoshopped image

or whatever it is, the official image of the

Shockwave Mighty Mug, I was like, wow, that just

makes G1 Shockwave look more vicious and diabolical

than anything I've ever seen. wish that they

would take this and i know of course they won't

but i wish they would take the money mugs into

t f a that would be awesome to get t f a styling

money mugs figures it it it would have been a

possibility back then but again like we stated

before this is something that's more aimed towards

uh... the g one audience i mean again though

those two movie ones are just freak occurrences

really who if you know what when they get released

Nice nice nice. Yeah, and the image I just for

the for the listeners the image I just posted

in the Skype window was my from my own personal

collection This is my Mighty Mugs hot rod that

I own which was a custom made by a fan. They

need to do this They need to see that image.

Yes, he does release this and co -sell it with

Mighty Mugs Wyatt. Oh Good. No now that will

never I would buy that But that would never be

for sale, ever. It was specifically given to

him. Yes, but I would still buy it. And I don't

think that they would ever make another one.

Okay, crud, now I want a Mighty Mugs lug nut.

Thank you. I don't know, it might have been you

for a moment. We were talking about this off

the air when you were actually showing me it

on video last time. Yeah, when I showed you a

video of it, yeah. I had to dig it up actually.

What they should have done was and I know they

want to make more money off the off the movie

Instead of making movie optimists and movie Bumblebee

as part of this exclusive wave They should have

gotten another character. They should have gotten

like a hot rod or I Really? Yeah, I feel that

It part of me is like, okay They're doing this

to cash in on the money that revenge of the fallen

is making But the other part of me is like they

really should have went for two more higher tier

Characters a devastator if you will or you know,

whatever. Yeah, like we said that last podcast

But it's just they really should have went for

I mean I don't know, we have Jazz, let's do Prowl.

Let's do Devastator and Prowl. One Decepticon,

one Autobot. I wouldn't even go with this. Heck,

they could even do a Starscream and repaint for

all I care. That's easy money. Do Skywarp and

you've got easy money in the bank because not

only does Skywarp probably have a huge following,

but he's also got the best colors of all three

of them. Well, it's not only that. They don't

even have to make it. See if they did. Yes, exactly.

If they did a Devastator or a Prowl, they might

have to make a new mold or mold a cast -a -new

gun. If you do a Sky Warper or a Thundercracker

or a Sunstorm or a Rainmaker, whoever, you already

got it. You just got to retain it. See, I don't

even think... Convention -exclusive Sunstorm

with some sort of metallic deco. I don't even

think it's a fact of a new mold, because the

Mighty Mug mold, I mean, Big Bad Toy Store has

a blank Mighty Mug for sale. Granted, it's just...

the Mighty Mug without an accessory it's not

it doesn't like come with a gun or a gun hand

or anything it's just the Mighty Mug just completely

white yeah but if you were a fan and they made

Prowl would you want a gun with it? well yeah

but I'm saying and that's Hasbro's thinking too

they would want to please the fan at least and

give them a gun right exactly and they'd have

to make that gun exactly but you wouldn't have

to make an entire new mold you would just have

to make a new weapon Wouldn't you want a more

Prowl -accurate gun as opposed to, say, giving

them Jazz's gun? Well, yeah, but I mean... There

you go. I would prefer if they pass up the opportunity

to do something properly later on. Let them do

their movie aesthetic, Bumblebee and Prime, which

I'm pretty sure will be the least popular of

the entire line. But you know what I know they

look pretty they don't look that bad to me They

don't look bad, but I think that they'll probably

sell the least out of probably all of them because

By the time these come out I'm you know the heat

that is Revenge of the Fallen would have died

down and the only people that would have bought

this would have been either completists like

me or people coming off of the heat of Revenge

of the Fallen So, you know again this be the

whole point the mighty mug is for collectors

Yeah, so and the collectors are looking for g1

stuff. They're not they're not looking for movie

stuff. So But yeah You know going back to what

other like top -tier Mainstream what I would

have even as much as I hate him I would have

even liked to have seen like a hot rod versus

Springer thing or something in with the jazz

and the shockwave You know you could get a Springer

Mighty Mug out of it, but of course you know

again They're just trying to you know rake in

some money off or into the fall and honestly

in my own opinion I think I think the heat off

the movie is dying anyway the DVDs out people

can watch it when they want to Yeah, well, that's

what I'm saying by the time. Yeah, but you know

these two movie Mighty Mugs come out I don't

see the market being there anymore for them if

these came out During the movies run or during

a little bit before the DVDs run that would have

made sense But now not really no and and like

we're saying off air. I think that You know I

have my pre -order up for the BBTS just the just

the shockwave itself not not the entire set You

know you had told me that normally when it says

estimated November probably not going to get

it until December or January which kind of sucks,

but you know by that time like you said It's

not going to matter Because the movie stuff has

already died down Hell by by December we're supposed

to find out what's going to be next year's story

or series or whatever So that'll be the new hot

topic anyways, too You know I just wonder how

they're going to juggle all that especially with

the movie movie 3 being announced for 2011 and

I just want to bring something up now. I was

talking to Malunas this morning on Twitter about

it movie three better have not in your face up

your ass coverage I think that was the main problem

with movie two is that it got so much coverage

Before filming even started, I understand hype,

I understand that, that's fine. Blame the fansites.

No, I understand that, but I'm just saying it's

just like it was an overload of coverage for

this thing that, frankly, not a lot of general

moviegoers really liked. Hell, a lot of the Transformers

fans that I know that went to see it didn't like

it all that much. I liked certain parts of it,

it was better than I, you know, people always

complain about Skids and Mudflap. I don't know.

I didn't find them super annoying as I thought

I was going to. I liked them. I liked skits.

I mean, I liked them, but they weren't like my

favorite characters. I don't know. When you get

a chance, Proto Man, you should go on Facebook

and look at my photos. I posted an album. I had

taken screencaps and I tagged them of the scene

where Bumblebee smashes the two of their heads

together and throws them out of the temple. Hi

Curly and Moe, I guess? Moe is Bumblebee, Bumblebee

is Skids, and Larry is Mudflap. It's the three

stooges all over again. Except this time Moe

can't talk. So really it'd make more sense for

Bumblebee to be Larry because Larry was the mute

one. No, Larry wasn't mute. Larry talked. Not

very much. No, he didn't talk very much of what

he did. He talked. trust me i know my mom is

a huge three stooges and we're getting on a completely

different topic but i mean you know it's the

same thing it i don't know for some odd reason

just seeing that scene the three of them and

bumblebee just kind of like you know knocking

some sense into them it just reminded me of moe

larry and curly so whatever um so do we have

any final thoughts before i go into the closing

I guess Mighty Mugs are pretty sweet. My only

negative with them is just they take up a lot

of space. They do take up quite a bit of space

on a desk. Space which could be filled by a couple

of three and three quarter inch figures or smaller

figure or legends figures or even a deluxe or

two. Well again as we've said the Mighty Mugs

are for the collectors and really you know that's

why you know we have space. Because I don't I

very rarely have since since I've had these mighty

mugs I very rarely have had them out here on

my desk all the time And when I have I usually

keep them in the right hand side corner of my

monitor and of course That's for all my status

updates on Facebook show up, and it's like wait

crap heads too big I can't see it, so I usually

just leave them on myself in the other room for

display purposes in there But you know teach

their own What were you going to say, Proto Man,

about Final Thoughts? Oh, not just that. Mighty

Mugs are awesome. Thank you for joining us here

on Transformers Toycast. There are several ways

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The second is you can stop by www .predaconempire

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Mine's General Techno. No underscores. And it's

T -E -K -N -O. Okay, and Proto Man? Proto Man

X. Kinda like Malcolm X. Just less black. Good

lord. Okay, we hope you enjoyed this episode

of Transformers Toycast. I wish you'll join us

next time. I am TFG1 Mike with GeneralTechno

and the GoddamnProtoMan saying in the formal

words of Optimize, Transform and Rollout and

thank you for listening. Until next time.