Mighty Mugs, G.I. Joe Figures, and Astro Boy

Cliffjumper, commence countdown! Five, four,

three, two, one! Hello and welcome to the 26th

episode of Transformers Toycast which is now

sponsored Brought to you by BigBadToyStore .com

I am your host TF2 and Mike and I am joined by

the goddamn proto man. Hello. Hey, how you doing

people? Doing pretty good. Yes. We are now sponsored

by BigBadToyStore .com where as of this recording

they are still running their cyber Black Friday

Cyber Monday sale where you can save Up to or

from 20 to 90 percent on over 1 ,000 items they

have in stock. Some new arrivals that they have

is Masterpiece Transformers MP01B Black Convoy.

The ultimate black nemesis version of Prime is

now in stock. At $149 .99 this version also includes

a small bonus metal plaque and stand to display

next to the figure. Picks of this will be added

soon. If you enjoyed the MP01 keep your collection

current with the latest Masterpiece figure. Twilight

Barbie set single. Oh boy. We've received a shipment

of Mattel's pink label Barbie Twilight figures.

We've got Edward available singly at $25 .99

and the set of Edward and Bella at $54 .99. Don't

miss out on these popular figures. RA -24 Buster

Prime, this leader class size prime is a Japanese

exclusive. It comes with new and improved paint

deco, lots of silver, chrome, and other touches

to make it even more true to the movie. Limited

stock available at $94 .99. Masters of the Universe

classics Scare Glow, another great figure from

the Mattel's Masters of the Universe classics

line. Scare Glow is available now at $34 .99,

and we will also have most of the other figures

in the series available at varying prices. Take

a look here, and it gives a link. Star Wars,

Clone Wars, Anakin, and Ashoka Maquette's life

-size Captain Rex monument. We've also received

a number of exciting new Clone Wars statues.

The Captain Rex life -size monument stands about

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clone armor and makes a great gift for Star Wars

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head over to big bad toy store dot -com for all

those new arrivals. They have dozens of pre -orders

going up Almost every day they have new arrivals

almost every day just a great great website not

just for Transformers toys even though obviously

We the Transformers fans would probably use them

the most for that So yes, what's been going on

with you, sir? Oh Well, I guess I could add one

thing with that pink label Barbie set. I will

admit that I do own one pink label Barbie. But

it's because of Speed Racer. They did a two pack

for the movie and my girlfriend picked it up

for me because she thought it was cute. And it's

not that bad looking actually, I will admit.

Although I didn't open it, it remains in the

box as it should. Guess what they have a twilight

that one now. There's a prize there. Yeah Anyways,

I'm not gonna drag this topic into twilight new

So TF related wise, huh? Um, what did I pick

up this week? We had a $15 Voyager Special at

Walmart and Toys R Us so I picked up Voyager

Megatron, which I did get a chance to from the

Nothing special that guy Kind of interesting,

a little too green for my taste, but still not

bad figure for $15. Yes. That's about it. I guess

also I'll mention this now, which is news from

our side of the border, which is related to TransformerCon.

TransformerCon, which is Canada's ninth annual

Transformer Collectors Convention, the second

biggest in the world. We're having our... We

have our new convention for next year and we

have the dates now, which is going to be on July

16th, 17th and 18th of 2010. It's going to be

again at the beautiful Doubletree International

Plaza Hotel, which is near the Toronto Airport.

It's still on Dixon Street. It's in Toronto,

Ontario, as we all know. And it's awesome. Again,

come check it out, guys. We're going to have

more info about the guests and the exclusives

and everything that we're going to be having.

Just go to TFCon. for more information as it

comes. Cool, cool. Let's see, what have I been

up to? Well, obviously the newly promoted BigBadToyStore

.com sponsorship or partnership or whatever you

want to call it. Actually, a lot of people are

going to be shaking their heads. Wait, why is

there a new episode of Toycast? It's not 2010

yet. Because I was originally going to Stop the

show until the new year just to give us a break

on it, but with this new sponsorship deal I figured

out well, you know I better you know get some

episodes in with with some of their stuff promoting

Promoting some of the items that they that they've

got coming up or coming out or just released

or whatever so that's why Yeah, exactly Yeah,

but I don't know I'm I'm sure you've seen it.

There was a news item. I found it on Cybertron

dot com about somebody on ebay having the exclusive

money mugs wave set available the new ones yeah

shock wave and everything yeah I'd wait I'd wait

because they're gonna be they're gonna be pretty

much everywhere the second those do release I

know it's too late oh it's over at the auction

no no I mean it it got apparently whoever has

it it did they've got multiple items because

after I checked it after I Committed to buy it

now it relisted. So apparently they have more

than one set. So Total you really want to know

Well, I've spent three hundred dollars in some

figures I think after the shipping it's like

Ninety one dollars You have to realize something

in Canada Mighty Mugs range between I would say

$14 and $16 Canadian. And that's with the ugly

packaging too. We have the generic Optimus Prime

packaging. Right, yeah. And to get those non

-generic Optimus Prime packaging, we have to

go to specialty stores that usually range between

$20. So I mean, how much is in the set? How many

figures? It's four figures. It's G1 Shockwave,

G1 Jazz, Movie Prime, and Movie Bumblebee. Which

which really honestly I was actually gonna ask

the seller if I could get If at all possible

if he would break it up and give me two of each

of g1 jazz and g1 shockwave I was like no no

no I'm not I'm not I'm not gonna do that I'm

just gonna go ahead and commit to buy the the

set as it is and what I'll do is I will eventually

give the other two away as prizes for future

contests because honestly I I Just I don't you

know we've discussed this before movie aesthetic,

it just doesn't appeal to me and I just, the

Mighty Mugs, you know, you and I both said this,

they're for collectors. And I'm sorry. Did you

hear that, listeners? Mike took one for the team,

for you guys. So now you're going to have some

free merchandise. Yeah, exactly. And you know,

and it's like, you know, what the hell? Why and

you know you and I talked about this I think

in episode 24 There's so many other molds or

other designs that they can There's a lot that

could be done with the jazz mold. Oh, yes I mean

look if we could get bumble we could get jazz

from bumblebee I mean there then I mean I could

see even prowl cliff jumper I mean, there's blue

streaks smoke screen the list goes on and on

there's so much that could be done with just

like quote born transformers if you will yeah

yeah I could even see a side swipe being done

if the colors were done correctly yeah but it

should be you know hell honestly I would like

to see Beast Machines Mighty Mugs I know that's

probably never gonna happen but I would like

to see it but yeah I completely agree But as

I was going to say, what you paid is pretty much

more or less right, at least on our side of the

border, because I factor in $20 plus tax each.

And if it's a set of four, so that's $80 right

there. I mean, it's more or less right. Yeah.

And I mean, you really wanted that shockwave

anyway. Oh, yeah. So again, if you really wanted

it, who cares what the price is? That's how I

am too. If I really want something, it's a blank

check. So it doesn't make a difference. Yeah,

yeah, you know I mean I still have the pre -order

from BBTS that I made for the shockwave and Of

course, I probably will cancel that once once

these come in my only question is um I had to

use my secondary eBay and PayPal account now

my question is have you ever used the eBay gift

card? Never I've never had one you're no help

Trying to figure out, all right, if I have a

PayPal account that none of my, you know... I

assume that when you go to check out, there usually

is a promotion code? Right, there is, but my

question is, okay, it says in order to use the

eBay gift card, you have to have a PayPal account.

My question is, does it matter or not if you

have a zero balance in the PayPal account? I

mean, technically, I already, like once I go

tomorrow morning to get the gift cards to pay

for these items, because that's the only way

I can pay for them at this time, I've already

paid for the gift card amount whatever that is

50 60 70 80 dollars whatever it is I've already

paid for that amount so I'm hoping once I enter

the the card number in the coupon thing it'll

just say oh yeah okay cool your purchase is complete

but if it means that I have to have money in

my PayPal account Yeah, that's not going to work

because my main PayPal account is still in negative

balance because of some stupid moron that I sold

an iPhone to almost over a year ago now that

Got a charge back on me and got me to have a

negative balance And I don't think I can pay

that negative balance off because I won't have

any extra money for the month of December Which

probably in hindsight, you know, I probably shouldn't

have bought the the money mug set but I would

much rather get it mid -December rather than

wait and see how much further back the pre -order

at BBTS is going to be pushed back, because it

was supposed to be out this month, which is still

November, and now it's pushed back to mid -December,

so I'm not really sure. Actually, we have...

general techno is actually going to be joining

us because he was eating dinner at the time so

here he is alright so techno you there ah there

we go hello everybody yes yes you're late we've

already made the official announcement that toy

cast is now sponsored by BigBedToyStore .com

and in each episode I will be reading some copy

of new stuff that they're either have arriving

or pre -orders and stuff like that. Of course

that'll be at the beginning of the show which

we already did. So I think we can just go straight

into the toy discussion. I think I'm going to

go first. And I'm becoming, slowly I'm becoming

a muddy mug collector. I love these things. They're

just so great. And not just the Transformers

ones either. I bought a Cobra Commander GI Joe

Muddy Mug. And, you know, we've talked before

about the Mighty Mugs on some of them, how detailed

they are with the designs that are actually on

the actual figure. The Cobra Commander one is

very special and unique to where he actually

comes with a detachable cape. Is it cloth? No,

it's hard plastic. It's a hard plastic that actually

attaches to his neck. And him without it, it

looks cool. Him with it, it looks cool. He comes

with, I guess it's his classic rifle or gun or

whatever. I don't know. I don't think the G .I.

Joe figures really had like, you know, classic

guns like, you know, Starscream has null rays.

I don't think G .I. Joe ever had like, you know,

classic pistols or guns or whatever. But it is,

it's just really cool. I really like it. I'm

actually probably going to be getting more Mighty

Mugs from BBTS. I'm actually liking a lot of

the ones that they did from Marvel, or the ones

that they have from when Marvel did their Mighty

Mugs runs. Yeah, but I mean this guy is pretty

cool. It's a nice addition to the collection

overall. Really not that much to say about him.

I mean, he's basically, you know, his colors

are... There's some like gold and silver black

red and of course blue The cape is actually in

two colors on the on the back as you have it

on him It is it is like the same blue that he

is and and on the back on the underside of it

It is like a dark orange is red Just really cool.

He comes in his classic Sun bow series GI Joe

silver mask Can pretty the muddy mugs talked

I could see Chris a lot of his voice coming out

of us I just could You recommend it oh Sorry,

I was confused by the Skype window thing there.

Oh, yeah I would I actually picked him up at

big bad toy store calm for Actually, I picked

up two of them one of them is for a Christmas

present for a friend of mine So I would recommend

him I think individually if you just buy one

of these guys at BBTS Minton box over there.

I think he's nine dollars and nine cents not

including the shipping price Just you know not

really I mean, I don't know what the shipping

is afterwards, but you know Mean under ten bucks

for a muddy mug. That's that's pretty rare Yes,

yes very much so so I guess Techno are you ready?

Yeah, good timing actually the phone that just

rang after we started I guess I'll first I'll

ask a quick question. Do you guys want to hear

transformers or something else for a change?

It doesn't matter as long as it's a toy Because

I think, honestly, with the fact that BBTS is

now sponsoring us, I may actually cut this back

to just Toycast in general. So it could be from

any line, I guess. I don't know. I'm still debating

on that, but whatever. OK. Well, I'm going to

just do a quick pick here then. I guess that's

all step. What's on my mold a bit and I'll do

a Now why not a GI Joe figure for a change, okay,

I'm gonna grab the This is being talked about

a lot on like TFW's podcast for instance this

figure and It is the Rex the dr. Lewis figure

from the GI Joe toy line That's from the movie

line, right? Yes from the movie toy line Aka

the I think it's safe to say spoilers now that

the movie's actually out on DVD Don't you that

he's actually Cobra can becomes Cobra commander

at the end of the movie. Yeah Now as far as accessories

go like the movie jitters have all been really

good for accessories He comes with a gun a brief

a briefcase with some little nano gel stuff capsules

in them. He's got He's got a wig and the breathing

mask as well as a cloak the wig just comes off

really easily You need to take the hand head

off the head off to get the breathing mask off

and he comes with these cool little metal gauntlet

things that snap over his arms and Overall really

he's a very cool looking figure one thing that

I say what you want about the G .I. Joe movie

But the toy line is incredibly well done like

they just keep up doing Hasbro's gonna eventually

reach a point where they're not going to be able

to do much in terms of innovation because I Don't

see it's gonna be very hard for them to innovate

even further with a three and three -quarter

inch figures They've gotten there. You're like

easily the best Pete the best company when it

comes to doing them They've got the most experience

best posability out there. And yeah If they run

into a problem, I think it's that they're gonna,

sooner or later, they're not gonna be able to

keep topping themselves. Yeah, I would agree.

You know, I don't know, I think I'm just stuck

in my whole Mighty Mugs phase thing. I don't

know, I just, there really isn't, outside of

some Transformers lines, There really isn't any

Twinline out there now that I want to collect.

Fair enough. I've gone back and I've looked at

the Masters of the Universe, the old, the original

Masters of the Universe stuff, and I would like

to have those again. Again, astronomical prices

on eBay and stuff is pretty much the only way

you're going to find original stuff. You can

always get that new battle damage he -man that

Mattel's doing where rather than have the battle

damage gimmick, they decided to make it chest

plates instead that look like the battle damage

gimmick. Yeah, I mean they do have the classics

line coming out, which is great. Isn't that online

only though? I don't know. Because they've been

their masters the universe stuff so far as far

as I know it's all being online But yeah getting

back to Hasbro's offerings and stuff I mean with

the GI Joe figures what suckered me in was the

25th line simply because I've seen so many pictures

of these awesome figures and stuff that were

all ridiculously posable and that got me interested

in wanting some of these figures so I first got

suckered in that way and Before you know it,

it's easy to amass stuff, especially once you

start thinking about it and going, you know,

it'd be really nice if I had some more troops

to round up my army. And you get into a trend

where you have to buy at least doubles of every

troop, just so that you have just generic soldiers.

Yeah, yeah. And you get some things where, like,

for instance, how I've got four— Few guys that

I've got four of each and then I've got some

guys I've got like two of each and I've got a

whole ton of different Cobra commanders Like

the doctors one. I've got the movie figure Cobra

commander as well, but I think the doctor as

a figure looks a lot cooler Mm -hmm. Plus there's

one thing that's being done on the message on

the message boards and such that people have

done where they've noticed that if you take off

the jacket the breathing mask the helmet and

then you give him the pit commandos uh the gas

mask apparently he's a very dead ringer to uh

psycho mantis from the metal gear solid games

hmm yeah he's got the right kind of outfit then

you just give him the mask and it's basically

a psycho mantis mask yeah when i um because recently

i I originally said that I would never pay to

see the G .I. Joe film, and technically that's

true. I had a free code from Redbox, so I got

it from Redbox, I don't know, like one in the

morning, and I watched it. There, you know, without

going into how I feel about the film, I did,

you know, now that you mention that, I did get

a Psycho Mantis vibe off of before he became,

you know, the giant ugly fucking mask, when he

was just the regular doctor part. I honestly

like the character far better before he became

without the Cobra Commander look. I think that

honestly looking back it might have been better,

I kind of get it story -wise, but it might have

been better if in fact he wasn't Cobra Commander

but just another... I mean, he was like one of

the more memorable characters in the movie, the

Doctor. And then they go and turn him into Cobra

Commander at the very end, when they could have,

say, kept the Doctor as like a top Cobra associate,

scheming with his own, and then do a Cobra Commander

reveal at the end anyway. That was something,

too, that kind of threw me off with the movie,

because he was an interesting character, and

I saw him as a new character. You know what I

mean? And then when they made him Cobra Commander,

I was like, ah! That's kind of like if in Revenge

of the Fallen, Scalpel really turned out to be

like Perceptor or something. No, Scalpel turned

out to be the Fallen. Yeah, that's a better example.

That's just it. It's like, it was an interesting

character and it's like, oh hey, it's Cobra Commander.

Wow, alright. Well, we're kind of going off on

a tangent which is fine, but I kind of... I kind

of like the role reversal because throughout

the entire movie you have the quote -unquote

future Destro character being nothing but this

anal retentive jackass to the doctor and at the

end the tables have turned. I kind of like that

but my main complaint with the Cobra Commander

take in the film is the mask and just the overall

look of the character. It's not It's not what

I remember Cobra Commander to be. Yes. It looked

a lot better on the screen than I thought it

was going to, to be perfectly fair. But I mean,

yeah, looking back, even when you think about

it, the whole fact that he becomes Cobra Commander,

now that I'm actually thinking about it, it's...

It doesn't mesh with his established character

at all, because he's established as a moral scientist.

He's a scientist who doesn't care what has to

be done, but he seems more interested in his

research than world domination. That's where

it kind of threw me off too. Yeah, yeah. But

even still, he was considering the fact that

I'd heard... The actor about the actor who is

playing him and it seemed like a bit of a question

mark I think that for what he got in terms of

the role I think he nailed the role the role

that he got say what you want about the script

But for what he was given he just absolutely

blew it out of the park Just from when you've

got the flashbacks version of him to the modern

-day raspy voice version He did a very good job

with his voice Yeah. Just adding that level of

creepiness and menace and utter despicableness

to him. It was the right voice for a Cobra Commander.

Yeah. Until he put the mask on and it deepened.

Yeah, that was the other issue. So would you

recommend the doctor figure or Rex the Doctor

or whatever the hell he's called? Oh yes. I hear

he's tricky to find. Hopefully he's reached saturation

more so now throughout the area, but he's a great

figure. And I was glad to get him. Next big one

I'm waiting for in the line is the City Strike

Snake Eyes. In other words, the G .I. Joe Resolute

one. But yeah, he's a good figure. I would recommend

him. All right. We're going to take a quick break

and then we'll be right back. We are back to

Toycast. I'm your host, TFD1 Mike. And last but

not least today is the Goddamn Protoman. Before

you start, Would you like to tell everybody what

happened to one of your online accounts or the

weekend? Yeah Yeah, you know, it's you know,

it's really funny about that too. It's because

usually on weekends. I'm Nowhere near a computer.

I'm actually out racing although that's gonna

slowly come to a wine when winter comes around

So I was nowhere near it. I think what triggered

it, and I hope no New Moon listeners are listening

to this, but I made a pretty out loud and vulgar

remark about New Moon shattering all the records

for 2009 movies and of course destroying Revenge

of the Fallen's hard work, as well as any other

movie, Dark Knight, whether it be. And oddly

enough, after I made those comments, the weekend

came. Then I got a slew. of private messages

and emails from various sources, whether it be

Lupus Convoy, or Vangelis, or anyone from the

boards, telling me that my Twitter account was

hacked. And now I was advertising, I didn't really

take a good look at it, Taco Bell? Yeah, you

were, you were. I kind of deleted it all, but

I took a quick look. One guy told me something

about an iPod also. But it just seemed like I

just started randomly spamming iPod and Taco

Bell ads. So someone hacked me and started using

it to promote that kind of stuff. So a big thanks

to the entire Transformer fandom for scrambling

to let me know when I wasn't near a computer

and trying their best to contact me. I don't

know if it was New Moon necessarily related because

someone else on my Twitter feed actually got

their account hacked just a couple days ago as

well. It's when people have a lot of subscribers,

they seem to like target those people. I don't

know why. Oh, I was going to guess that it's

people that have Windows computers. I mean, I

do as well. But I mean, there's friends of mine

who've had their MSN accounts compromised because

they somehow got a keylogger on their computer

and it captured all their passwords. Yeah, yeah.

All you need is a Google account running in the

background. They should have went for something

else instead of just my Twitter. Oh, boy. And

then, of course, there might be those sites where

they ask to use your account information for

all you know. Like, you know those sites where

you can do, like, polls and stuff like that?

Yeah. For all I know, some of those have data

mining, spy bots on them. Yeah, that's true.

Yeah, for the record none of the geek cast radio

shows or the geek cast radio network We do not

support or sponsor any part of fucking Twilight.

Sorry about your luck Twilight sucks if I want

a real vampire. I'm gonna watch angel Period

end of story I'm gonna quote Stephen King on

this one after he saw Twilight When he saw Twilight

he turned to the camera he said I remember in

my days when when vampires were in the daytime

They didn't sparkle they exploded Exactly And

you know what that sums it up right there And

as far as the Twitter hacking and MSN hacking

and just people getting hacked in general I'm

gonna quote one of Jeff Dunham's puppets Melvin

the superhero. It's the terrorists. I tell you

So what are you going to be talking about, Proto

Man? Well, in good faith of our new sponsor,

Big Bad Toy Store, I'm going to actually be talking

about one of the figures they have right up on

pre -order right now that I managed to pick up

at retail. It's the Astro Boy line based on the

new movie that came out of the same name, Astro

Boy, that I actually enjoyed quite a bit. There

wasn't a lot of press behind this movie, but

if you do get a chance to see it, go see it.

It's a very dark movie. I know that sounds crazy.

It's a very dark movie. It's very well done.

A lot of people who actually have seen it that

are reputable critics, they have said that this

movie is, along those lines of The Incredibles

and Toy Story, it's a very unexpectedly good

movie. And so the figure that I picked up is

from the six inch line of series one. You can

pre -order it on Big Bat Toy Store right now,

the whole set. I picked up the original Astro

Boy with the light -up core. Did you want to

say something, Techno? Oh, I just wanted to comment

that, yeah, that's a movie that's... It's on

my list, I guess, of things I'd eventually like

to see. I didn't really... I can see it being

dark simply because I've read a bunch of that

translated Astro Boy manga, and yeah, there's

some pretty dark elements to his origins. It's

very true to the source material. There's little

deviations here and there, obviously. Oh yeah,

you're going to have that. Like he wears a shirt,

for instance. Yeah, well that's just it. They

didn't want to have him the whole movie topless.

So, you know, there's little deviations here

and there for modernization, but in general,

it's very true to the material. It's very enjoyable.

I was quite surprised when I went to see it and

even my girlfriend was getting into the movie.

She was actually laughing and enjoying it. To

me, I almost felt it would have been just one

of those movies that I kind of dragged her along

and she just had to sit through it. But it was

actually a very enjoyable movie. Thumbs up, bring

the whole family, everyone's going to laugh and

love it. Anyways, getting back to the figure

I picked up. which is uh... it's the astro boy

light up core which is that's what it's called

uh... it's it's done in the classic astro boy

design uh... these are done by drag jazz where

which are known for the uh... megaman line of

figures which are also six inch and i also picked

this up because they are in scale with those

megaman figures and anyone who knows megaman

uh... knows that ash boy was kind of what megaman

was deviated from along with speed racer and

cyborg double o nine so The beauty with these

figures is they look very nice next to the Mega

Man ones, and they are to scale. And they're

fairly articulated considering the price point

and what they are. They're very nice figures.

The whole gimmick with the six inch line is that

they all have some kind of light up gimmick.

And with the classic Astro Boy, he has... You

open up his chest and his core lights up. And

let me tell you something, I have a lot of light

up action figures, whether it be Transformers

or G .I. Joe's Mega Man. And this is without

a doubt the brightest light up figure I have

ever owned in my entire life. I don't know what,

like if they're using an LED or something. This

thing is bright, very bright. To the point that

it's almost blinding. To the point that I could

use that instead of my cell phone at night to

like light my way to the bathroom. I was going

to say, it's basically a giant flashlight. Yeah,

it's very bright for a small little 6 -inch figure.

Even if you press the button without the chest

being opened up, his entire torso lights up.

It's an amazingly bright figure. very true to

Astro Boy. What they did for this Americanized

movie, if you want to call it that, they shrunk

his eyes down slightly just so they're not 100

% humongous eyes that are very typical of the

original 1950s, 40s manga and anime. But it's

still very true to the original. The underwear's

still there, the boots are still there. The hair,

it looks great, the articulation is great. Other

figures within this line, they have the one where

now he's clothed in more of a civilian clothing

wear and he has his rocket boots. You know, they

have the peacemaker who's the rival villain in

the series, and then they have the samurai which

was one of the grunts in the series. But they're

all very well put together figures. I did not

expect these to be of good quality. No offense

to Jazzware, but they kind of had a weird hit

or miss track record when it came to quality

of these figures. But these Astro Boy ones, they

actually went a little bit above and beyond.

put some really nice stuff together. I mean,

they're like they're very like even the head

is on a ball joint like it's they're very well

articulated. They're simple. Astro Boy is a very

simple design. And so it's not very difficult

to make it look good. But at the same time, they

were able to pull it off. I give it a heavy suggestion.

If you're a Mega Man fan, pick it up just for

the sake of history. If you're an Astro Boy fan,

you have to pick these up because these are some

of the nicest Astro Boy figures that come out

of anywhere in a long time. And yeah, like just

get him because I mean it's a it's a piece of

history I mean who knows what we'll see Astro

Boy ever again in the American audience. Yes

Question how does his chest open? It's it's just

a simple flaps like it's just it like a door

if you will But what they did they made it nice

like it's a nail you have to like stick your

nail into it you could it's not just like a Indentation

that you could just pull out or something they

make it try to look like it's like flat to the

body, you know? And then when you open up it

actually shows like an internal light because

there's a core because he has this core that

powers him so they actually put some details

inside the chest and when you press it you get

this absolutely blinding blue LED light which

shines right through the detailing of the core

and everything. It's a very nice looking figure.

Why is the death of Optimus Prime popping into

my head when I hear you describe that? Yeah because

you're probably picturing the Matrix. Exactly!

That's why I asked you how does his chest open

because if his chest opens like Like out and

then up that's exactly how primes did open well

to be fair The concept of the opening chest with

power core in the center did originate from Astro

Boy and later on other mecha series And even

then Mega Man used that in the mangas in 1985

Yes, I know As much as I'd hate to say it. Yeah,

but it goes back even further when you consider

the fact that the reason they do the chest thing

is because traditionally the heart is seen as

the center of the life for the human body. Even

though that's unnecessarily biologically accurate,

historically the heart was always seen as the

soul. Oh, true. True. But just, I don't know,

you know, just being the G1 fan that I am. Exactly.

One thing I'll say with jazzwares, so how's the

quality control on the figures, just wondering?

See, that's just it. I was not expecting, like

when I picked up this figure, I was expecting

it to, you know, with very low expectations because

I own the entire... line of Mega Man figures

from Jazzware, regardless of quality or not.

I own all the repaints, all the recasts, and

a lot of them I was really not happy with. A

lot of times plastic quality was very weak. Paint

jobs were sloppy. They would include accessories

that were really just didn't need to be there,

to the point where I felt like they almost hindered

the toy that they could have used, get rid of

that accessory, put that 10 cents more plastic

into the paint job. But these, they're flawless.

I know it sounds crazy, but they're absolutely

flawless. There's no paint problems at all. I

mean, again, when you do anime eyes, that's like

three layers of painting you gotta do. You have

to do the retina, the actual eye color, the little

dot that represents an anime eye. They did those

perfectly on every Astro Boy figure, whereas

with the Mega Man ones, they couldn't even get

simple two dots in the center of the eye. Right,

it would look cross -eyed almost with some of

them. So I mean One thing I know is that just

from jazz whereas I've gotten some of their stuff

recently I've got I've been getting the three

inch sonic figures as these have come out Being

a big sonic fan and I have to say like three

three three three and three quarter inches my

sweet spot in terms of what I buy because of

the fact that That's pretty much in scale with

Hasbro stuff But I'm being honestly I've been

pleasantly impressed with just the posability

on these guys. Yeah Like I guess they're finally

learning from their mistakes now their figures

are focusing on paint job quality and articulation

Which I guess in that with the Sonic figures.

Did you pick up with the Sonic figures the 200th

issue to pack? Yes. Yeah, I already had the comic

but I picked up the two pack anyway, so yeah

Yeah, it's interesting though because I mean

the Knuckles and Tails are easily the best figures

that are out in Canada so far. The Sonic mold

though, it's interesting though, they're still

learning with these. The problem with figures

like Sonic is that his current Sega design makes

his head incredibly back heavy. and his feet

aren't very tall and they're a bit cur, and he's

got no real heels, so he doesn't stand very well

at all. You have to lean him forward to stand

him. But with Sonic, he has limbs that are like

sticks too, so that doesn't really help. Well,

the limbs are really posable though, so the limbs,

if anything, they're a bit bulkier than they

should be. But like say with tails for instance

his tails act as a bit of a stand because they

just sit on the ground and Knuckles doesn't have

this has much bigger shoes So he doesn't have

any problems standing either But like just testament

to their learning stuff is that the guy who does

the the designer for the sonic figures He's posted

on message on there on some message boards here

and there and he said that yeah We know the first

wave wasn't that great work and with wave two

onwards. They're gonna be having stands with

the figures It's interesting they they do it

seems like they have good feedback with people

Because we seem to be with the Mega Man community

They have you know aired with the complaints

that they've gotten and they are learning from

because you know what they're a new company They've

started. I thought they started to believe about

five six years ago with the with I believe they

started with Mega Man and What was the other

line that they had at the time they were doing?

I don't know. I'm trying to remember. Oh, Street

Fighter. Street Fighter was the other one that

they had. You know, they had the two Capcom properties,

and they ended up losing the Capcom property

because of just bad quality, because their stands

would break when you would peg the figures into

them. They lost a lot of points. A lot of figures

came loose, you know, right out of the package,

you know? So they learned their lesson, you know,

when you lose a property like Street Fighter.

Yeah. They managed to get the sonic property

evidently and the only thing, although this is

just tangential so I won't go into it, but really

when it comes down to sonic licenses it strikes

me that nowadays the biggest problem with the

sonic license stuff for sonic stuff isn't the

licensors. it's Sega because the licensors usually

the licensors might have ideas they want to do

like I mean the people who do the game the people

who do these things like I remember reading Bioware

was it had fans of the Archie comic like Jazzwares

had fans of it and stuff but they can but they

can't use them because Sega won't let them use

them even though they're right license wise and

stuff Sega owns all these characters but they

don't want to let them use any of them yeah Which

is dumb because, you know, Sega's losing money.

Sega's been losing money for years. Well, all

right, we're not going to get into that. Yeah,

that's a whole other topic. That's a whole other

topic, but it's completely different still. But

I mean, honestly, seriously, any time that you

don't license out your characters, you know.

All right, take Hasbro, for example, and the

25 years that the Transformers has been around.

You know, they'll license their stuff out or

they'll do it themselves, obviously, because

Hasbro is a toy company. But, you know... Look

at the dry area. Beast Wars wasn't Hasbro initially.

It was Kenner. So think about that. Yeah, but

Hasbro eventually took over Kenner. Yeah, but

the point being is that even during a time where

their line was really iffy, when they were coming

off of G2... And sales weren't that hot, they

said, we still gotta keep Transformers out there,

let's get Kenner to do our Beast Wars line. Exactly,

so, but the point is... It's better to get out

product than to have nothing at all. Exactly,

that's the whole point. Oh yeah, you're talking

about your Sonic figures. I mentioned to you

on Twitter, why is Mighty Mugs Starscream holding

Tails hostage? Yeah, that's just because the

way I had it posed that I just happen to have

tails in front of Starscreen although honestly

the best pairing though with the figures is Pairing

up tails with the reissue perceptor in its tank

mode I have dubbed if people have seen this on

Twitter. I have dubbed this the science tank

And I have tails riding a perceptor in tank mode

Hmm Yeah, I know I'm I know the reissue does

yeah Yeah, the only thing I could never get past

and this is mainly in the cartoon How the hell

is a periscope microscope gonna become a freaking

gun? There there were there were two there in

two different episodes of g1 in two different

scenes Perceptor uses his Microscope telescope,

whatever you want to call it as a gun to either

shoot at Decepticons or shoot something into

space Same question could be asked how is reflector

even useful? Spying spying I mean this Expendable

bodies Exactly evidently he could regenerate

at least one of his component parts given one

got shoved through a space bridge to oblivion

All right, so I think we're gonna close this

out. Thank you for joining us here on transformers

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saying in the immortal words of, um, not optimist.

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