G1 Mirage and Classics Mirage with Guest Lupis Convoy

Oh, that was kind of a dingus. Clip jumper, commence

countdown. Five, four, three, two, one. Hello

and welcome to the 28th episode of Toycast, sponsored

by BigBadToyStore .com, where as of right now

you can save from 20 % to 90 % on over 1 ,000

items. I am your host TFJU and Mike and joining

me is Pecan Court Michael. Hello. Hey, how's

it going? And making a return from I don't know

what the last episode he was on is Lupus Convoy

from TFW. Hey everybody, how's it going? It's

going, how are you guys? Good. Survive. Every

other college student will know exactly what

I'm talking about. Finals and Christmas break

and yeah, it's almost there. You only got one

more week. So what have you been up to, Lupus,

since we last talked to you? That's pretty much

it, school. School and work. I have a sadistic

evil biology teacher and a... English teacher

that is on a power trip because he's the head

of the department. Ah, that sucks. Yes, one that

will publicly insult students left and right.

It's great. Everyone's had to have had that teacher

once where they absolutely hate their career

because they have to deal with the entry -level

students and their really bad writing. The ones

that lost their passion for their craft. You

know what the first thing that pops into my head

now that you're describing this is the business

professor Tom Cruise had in Cocktail where he

eventually tells him off. I wish I could do that.

But I'm going to be good. I had an anatomy and

physiology teacher in college whose goal it seemed

was to flunk half the class by midterm. So half

the class should be dropped and gone by the midterm.

And at that point, he's like, OK, anyone else

who's still with me, you're good. We'll try to

keep you around. But he left it up to himself

to weed everybody out of the medical program.

Wow. Wow. That sounds pretty much like my professor.

She flunked out half of the students already.

And one of them, on her last lab practical, The

first girl passed in her grade, and she said,

you know, you don't even have to wait for me

to grade it. You already know you're failing.

Oh, god. Nice. I'm like, wow, this is community

college. It shouldn't be this tough. Well, you

know, I mean, the way I see it, I can justify

it because you don't want crappy doctors. I mean,

you don't even want, yeah, you don't even want

crappy nurses. You want people that know their

stuff backwards and forwards. Exactly. I mean,

if you have to rely upon the teaching staff to

weed out the idiots who are going to bring malpractice

lawsuits down on whoever they work for or themselves,

then so be it. I just think it's excessive when

you've got people on their fourth and fifth try

through the class. I had to take it twice. And

subsequently it didn't. become a doctor. He became

a transformers collector. Yeah, exactly. Now

I collect transformers. Now he can do surgeries

on robots. Not quite qualified for that. Before

we get into the actual toy discussion, besides...

Besides the fact that we enjoy having lupus on

from from TFW one of the main reasons why you're

on this episode is because Mr. Wilson over there

had said that he wanted to work with you at some

point or another because you're the only person

from the TFW podcast that actually talks to him

on Twitter He's not a snob Also, I wanted to

give you guys an option to I've already talked

about it I talked about it in the episode that

was just released, but we had a bunch of news

out This I think I'm gonna wait until Sunday

to post this episode of Toycast made a bunch

of news come out this week about Transformers

Michael Bell has gone into addition for the new

cartoon I know for a fact that David Kay has

read everything about the new cartoon. He actually

before this news even popped out We were trying

to keep the interview of David Kay a secret,

but now that the snoozes popped out, he actually

spilled to us. I had a comment to him that Susan

Blue was the longest person to ever be attached

to the Transformers, and he said she still will

be. He kind of like just blurted that out during

our interview. I'm like, oh really? That's like

a new cartoon! she is Transformers. Yeah, she's

been casting director on pretty much everything.

Yeah, Beast Wars. Transformers related. Yeah,

animated, yeah. Yeah, exactly. And then of course

the other news is, what is it called, Transformers

War of Cybertron is going to be the new game?

Oh, and the graphics look awesome. Yes, they

do. Well, that's gotta be concept art. I don't

think that's gonna end up being the end graphics.

Even if it is concept art, it's good concept

art. Yeah, it does look good. I mean, remind

you, I think I might have preferred them to go

ahead and use Don Figueroa's War Within designs.

But I mean, I can understand that there's trademark

and copyright and such involved there. They couldn't

step on any toes. So they went with something

that looked very, very close. I think my only

complaint about the images, and again you guys,

the listeners can go over to TFW2005 .com to

find all these news items. I think my main complaint

about the images was the Megatron alt mode. It's

just a general, it's just a regular run -of -the

-mill tank. But I do like his gun in robot mode.

It looks like a beast scope. Yeah, it looks like

the Super, what was that thing called for the

Super Nintendo? The Super Scope 6? Group 6. Yeah,

yeah. So yeah, I wanted to, since Lupus told

me that he's part of Group 2 and really doesn't

get to talk about any of the news as it comes

out, like when it first comes out for this week,

oh no. But, wow, I mean, am I correct in thinking

this is the same group that did the Armada video

game for the PS2? I'm not sure. I don't think

so. From what I've read so far, and again, I've

only read it on TFW, I haven't gotten that deep

into it, but it looks like it was the same group

who did the movie games. And that's in Activision,

I don't think Activision did the Armada game.

No, the Armada game was Atari. Right, right.

Which, even so, even if it's going off of the

movie games, it still looks awesome. In design,

I mean in concept. Whether that's what the final

product is or not, I love that sound wave. That

sound wave image is just awesome. And that picture

of Prime with the axe that's almost as white

as he is. Yeah, exactly. It's just like... BAM!

It's not even one that he's got coming out of

his hand, it's one he's actually holding onto,

too. And, uh, some Transformers animated overtones

there. Yes. Well, you know, to borrow a phrase

from Green Lantern and Justice League, and you

can kiss my axe! Um, yeah, uh, so what's been

going on with you, uh, Mr. Pecan Court over there?

Uh, well, you know, you read my blog post, so...

Finished. Called me right in the middle of it,

so... Basically, I took my wife up into Michigan

and we did a tour of the Southwest Michigan wine

country. That was nice. We hit six or seven wineries

and came home with three cases of wine. I was

just enjoying a glass of Tabor Hill Classic Demi

-Sec before the podcast. Good stuff. Damn, I

was hoping he was going to break his record for

not being drunk on a show, but no. Well, you

know, it's the every time we started a podcast

with Mike, it becomes the Michael Blanchard drinking

game. Oh, it doesn't. So anytime Michael says,

oh, I don't know, you know, let me take a shot.

So, you know, I keep the Grey Goose here. Just

in case. Just in case. As you know, he's going

to say, oh, I don't know. Take a shot. I will

be hammered by the end of every podcast. I remember

the very first episode I had you on, episode

14. It was one where episode 14 of TFD1 podcast

you had said, like, oh, wait, yeah, I was supposed

to hang out with you tonight. I completely forgot.

I went upstairs and drank a whole bottle of wine

with my wife. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I

just drunk through, like, the first 25 minutes

of that podcast. Occasionally my wife and I will

have a glass of wine while we watch TV, you know?

And sometimes it leads to two and three and sometimes

we finish the bottle. Which, you know, it's not

a bad thing. I just like ribbing you about it.

Yeah, but, you know, given that, given the fact

that we like our wine, you know, the trip out

on the wine trail was really nice. I mean, we

had a tour guide who took us out in an SUV, so

we didn't have to drive. You know, and all these

places give free tastings. Yeah. It was really

nice. We had a good time. Any further adventures

of Aidan and Gavin this week? Oh, you know. Yes

and no. I mean, they're both growing and getting

bigger and Aidan is talking a lot more and he's

saying some outrageous things. I mean, the other

day... Chris's sister was over and she says,

holy shit. And from behind the couch we hear,

holy shit. It's like, aw man. I just look at

her, Auntie Katie, look at her like, what the

hell, seriously. You gotta watch what you say

around these little kids. And Gavin wants to

do everything Aidan does. At least he can't say,

holy shit. I'm still waiting for the day that

that Aidan manages to break into the the coveted

cabinet of yours You know I'm not so much worried

about them getting into the cabinets I mean they're

they're they're oak and plexiglass and they have

steel locks on them There's no way they can get

in the problem is is I have huge stacks of unopened

toys in my office I mean like you know stacks

that are taller than me in some cases And I I'm

afraid that they're gonna look at that and say

or at least one of them God forbid the one on

the bottom and say hey, I think I'd like to open

this one I said they haven't yet, but you know

I'm worried about that. I have an episode where

you just Basically go through your entire office

or whatever the nearest pile is and we just list

your your Unopened toys because you have like

you buy all these toys because you're a completionist

and then you never open them Well the idea there

well Initially the idea was that I wanted to

open them and I wanted to put them all on my

shelves and now my shelves are full And we're

talking, you know 14 feet six foot tall shelves

two feet deep You know, I mean it's ridiculous

that I have all this stuff and then I am running

out of room I have one shelf open, but I've got

way too many box toys to fit in there Well, you

could start selling them on eBay if you don't

want the toys You know, I'm tempted to I mean

I have Just a whole bunch of those Star Wars

crossovers that I don't want You know, but you

can't sell those To save your own life, you know,

I've got a whole bunch of Well, I want to say

like the all the alternators I want to keep and

I get a bunch of those that would if I got rid

of them that Would free me up as a shelf What

was the the old robots in disguise I've got a

whole shelf of those I could free up if I got

rid of them, but I just You know I'm I'm a completionist.

I feel bad if I parted with them But no, I actually

looked on eBay to see if I could sell my toys

RS reissues Cause I have like 20 of them. And

apparently nobody's buying them. Which original

smiles? You know, the ones that they, the G1

toys they reissued in the book cover boxes. Oh,

well depending on which ones you have, I may

want some of them over a couple of months if

you really want to. You know, we can talk about

that later, but if you really want to get rid

of them. Well, I mean I was just gonna sell them

all on eBay and and I looked and none of them

were selling and the only one I sold off was

ultra Magnus and You know the rest of them are

still sitting in my closet taking up space. I've

got oh man just boxes and boxes of Over those

little cars called The spy changers, yeah, I've

got buttloads of them spy changers Just because

I bought the clear ones, I bought the different

color ones, I bought the two packs and the single

packs, and I've got just a whole crate of them.

And then I've got probably two more boxes full

of Japanese Beast Wars. That wasn't too long

ago, Big Bad Toy Store was selling them off at

four bucks each, like the Iguanas, things like

that. And I get a bunch of those, and it's like

they're gonna sit in the closet. They haven't

even made it out to the shelves because there's

just no room for them. I don't have any room

in my closet now. Like I said, I get all these

toys stacked up in my room because I can't put

them in a closet. And my wife has no pity. Yeah,

she doesn't care. She's like, you know, you have

a lot of room in your room. I'll find somewhere

to put them. So, I don't know. I just got way

too much crap is what it comes down to. And eventually

I'm going to have to put a stop to it. Going

to have to start hanging them off the ceiling

or something. Like models, yeah. That's what

I used to do with all the flying Beast Wars figures

when I was living in California. Sky Shadow,

things like that. I got really thin fishing wire.

Or fishing line. This whole matrix and had this

whole aerial scene going on. That's what I need

to do is put like Primus and Unicron up on the

ceiling. Yeah, let them hang there and forever

do battle above my head. Well, then we're also

gonna have to throw in like the Death Star Vader

and yeah Well, you know, it's sad too because

it's like I've got a Primus and I've got a Unicron

in the shelf in the in the tall toy shelf next

to Fort Max but then in the closet The black

one? Oh. Oh yeah, I've got a black Unicron, but

I've also got a Primus with the Unicron head.

Yep. So I've got the one with the head still

in the box. The one without the head is in the

shelf. On the shelf, I should say. And then Vader

is in the closet too, still in the box. And that's

a lot of room. These are huge boxes. Yep. Oh

yeah. So, you don't want to hear about me bitching

about not having enough room for toys. Well,

for me, it's very, very interesting beginning

to December. I... Excuse me, sorry. The only

way I could get a good enough deal on the two

Mighty Mugs that I did not have yet outside of

the Wave 3 ones, the Starscream and the Grimlock,

was for me to buy the Wave 2 Starscream Grimlock

Optimus and Bumblebee case from Big Bad Toy Store.

So I bought those and I already have an Optimus

and Bumblebee as the listeners will know as I've

talked about them before. So I basically just

got this for Starscream Grimlock. Well, I have

actually I no longer have to bug you mr. Wilson

about your about your unopened leader class Megatron

from animated because Yeah, you know shut up.

I made you know with Thor's from the FW boards

and he actually was on the hackers commentary

with me for M wire I'm trading those two unopened

mighty mugs and the universe 2 .0 starscream

to him for leader class Megatron Unfortunately

the universe Starscream won't be here until Saturday

Which is the day after that this will be released

so I will already have gotten it by the time

this this episode goes up, but Yeah, yeah, I've

gotten those I actually when I had no state a

link on on Cybertron calm for the there was an

eBay auction for the wave 3 mighty mugs and I

debated and debated and Tried to you know back

and forth back and forth and I said screw it

I'm just gonna get it and I got it and they're

on their way They're actually right now being

held up in customs up in California for all places

are Arnold Schwarzenegger is holding my transformers

hostage and it's Personally he's playing with

them on his desk right now That's a really scary

mental image. Yeah, a bulked up version of Darth

Helmet. But yeah, my Mighty Mugs collecting,

as far as the Transformers, unless they release

more, are complete. I will be getting Shockwave

and Jazz and Movie Optimus and Movie Bumblebee,

which I'll probably trade or sell, or most likely

trade. Because yeah, I don't want those. So now

that I've actually gone back and thought about

it, there are four Autobots and four Decepticons

for the Mighty Mugs for G1. So it's a 4 on 4

battle. There you go. So that's what's been going

on with me. Not really too much else. You, Mr.

Wilson, myself and Steve Megatron will be starting

up the Beast Unleashed podcast, our 22 episode

review show of Beast Wars and Beast Machines

that will be released this Saturday, again a

day before this show goes out. We also had, Steve

and I had the awesome opportunity to interview

David Kay and I've told this story before, it's

an idea that I had I wanted to do, I mean I've

only known Steve like, I don't know, almost a

year now, but I wanted to do something really

special for his birthday and he does an impression

of Beast Wars Megatron. So I'm like, alright,

cool, if I can somehow find a way to contact

David Cain, get an interview with him, and we

had talked back and forth, back and forth about

doing a Beast Review series after TFG1, and it

took me six months. To nail down the details

and actually get to be able to talk to Mr. K.

So yeah, I got that for Steve and that will be

out Saturday as well. Actually, it's very funny.

Saturday, December 12, 2009, is the one year

anniversary since TFG1 aired. TFG1 podcast started

December 12 of last year, so it's very ironic

and funny that we are starting the Beast Wars

series one year later. I find it impressive.

let's say that you know a year after your podcasting

debut you're doing interviews with David Kaye

and you know Annie Stan yeah yeah that that's

that's huge yeah my my ultimate like before I

the one thing I want to do before I die is to

be able to interview Peter Cullen that that that

that would just be my ultimate thing for me Just

have to like track him down at BotCon, hold him

hostage. Unfortunately, yes, because I've heard

from some media sources that I have in the industry

that his agent is a complete dickhead. That's

what I've heard. It's just a rumor, but that's

just what I've heard. Well, the agent is essentially

the gatekeeper. And it's his job to keep, you

know, shmo podcasters from knocking on Peter's

door and saying, can you say... You know, I don't

know. Form and roll out? Exactly, yeah. Say,

you know, sentience is the right of all, you

know, free beings and freedom beings. Say, give

me your face. Give me your face. Give me your

face. They're not. Tess does not sponsor the

give me your face hashtag on Twitter at all.

I wonder how many times she's been asked to say

that. Probably none because he's got the dickhead

agent that weeds all them out Well, yeah, but

well the dickhead agent might also be going what's

a podcast exactly? I know I could have sworn

now you guys can correct me because I'm not really

sure I just spent this past week I spent 48 hours

watching all three seasons of Beast Wars because

I had never actually seen the show like I caught

episodes when it was first relief, but it was

like I was out of my Transformers phase at that

point in my life. So I watched all three seasons

back -to -back and I thought it was Gary Chalk's

primal that started the sentient beings thing.

Freedom is the right of all sentient beings because

he says it in the show. I'm sorry. It's an homage

because freedom is the right of all sentient

beings is the motto that was on Optimus Prime's

file card in 1984. Oh, okay, but he never actually

said it in any Way shape or form until exactly

right. It's attributed to him though. Okay. No,

no, that's fine I mean, I didn't know I mean,

you know, it's good to know so at least at least

I'm not talking out of my ass It's tend to do

sometimes we all know I'll keep you honest. I

seriously doubt that, Mr. Target Toy Stealer.

What? He didn't steal anything! He didn't steal

anything! He didn't steal anything! He didn't

steal anything! He didn't steal anything! He

didn't steal anything! He didn't steal anything!

He didn't steal anything! He didn't steal anything!

He didn't steal anything! He didn't steal anything!

He didn't steal anything! He didn't steal anything!

He didn't steal anything! He didn't steal anything!

three months to restock. And when they did, when

they finally did, they wheeled out this, you

know, pallet of like 20 boxes. And I'm walking

down the aisle and I see all these boxes that

are labeled transformers. And I look around and

there's nobody looking at me. So I just start

tearing them open. Exactly. Yeah. It's like,

you know what? And somebody caught me. And said,

you know, you're not supposed to be opening these

boxes. And I said, but I did. And look what I

found. And she's looking at me like, so what?

And I said, well, well, can I keep them? And

she's like, well, if you already pulled them

out, go ahead. So I walked out of there. Looks

like they have to put on the peg. Exactly. Yeah,

I was doing them a favor. So yeah, I wrote off

a blog post about that because I thought it was

hilarious and I came home with all these transformers.

You know, Mike makes it sound like I dressed

up in ninja garb and snuck into the back room

and gutted a couple of hapless target workers

with a sword or something on my way to steal

18 cases of transformer boxes out the back door.

No. Is it sad that I can see you do the whole

Mission Impossible 1 Tom Cruise thing? From the

ceiling. Drop it from an air vent, you know?

That's right. Crap, I can't get the boxes through

the air vents. I mean, honestly, you know, you

and I have ribbed on each other about a lot of

stuff, and that's just along with your drunkenness

half the time. What's on you about? Because when

I read the blog post, I hadn't even talked to

you yet. It was like you were just some random

follower on Twitter that, I don't know, if you

followed me first or blah, blah, blah, vice versa.

But I read this post and I'm like, oh my god,

he did not go to Target and just randomly open

boxes for Transformers, for Christ's sake. And

it just made me laugh so much. It's actually

probably my favorite blog post of anything that

I've ever read online. Thanks. But you know what?

It wasn't just any Transformer. It was Transformers

animated Blur and Swindle. It wasn't just Blur

and Swindle. It was Blur, Swindle, Waspinator.

God knows how Samurai prowl. Yeah, Samurai prowl

probably. Yeah, I think I got like I went home

with like 10 of them Yeah, the only ones I didn't

get were the robot heroes and I wasn't sure if

I wanted those at the time Yes, so we are gonna

take a quick break and then we will come back

with the toy discussion Try this one spike now

you see Now you don't Hey, where'd Mirage go?

We are back and it's time for the toy discussion

and Mr. Wilson is gonna go first. What will you

be talking about this so sir? I think I will

be talking about G1 Mirage mm -hmm and I have

him here and You know, he's shiny Actually, when

you get him in the light here, he's actually

very pretty. Pretty in a good way. He's got a

nice deco kind of way. Little Dusty, he's been

on my shelf for a long time, but all of his stickers

are in very good shape. It's very easy to find

these old G1 figures from 84 that are, let's

say, naked. He'll have his... I don't know how

to pronounce it. It's Citanese. It's got C -I

-T -A -N -E -S on the side. And it's painted

on there. But like the majority of these older

ones, all of the details are all stickers. And

they tend to come off after a bit. So it's nice

when you find one that actually has all of the

stickers. Basically, he transforms into a Formula

One racer. The original one came from the Diaclone

line and was then brought into the Hasbro line

in 1984. I want to say that he was reissued once

or twice in Japan. I want to say one of the most

recognizable things about him is the way his

face looks. He's actually got kind of an oval,

semi -oval head with the vents on either side.

And every time they create a new Mirage homage,

I want to say with the exception of the Machine

Wars ones, they always try to go back to that

same head with the flared out side of the head

venting. I'm not sure what you would call that,

side of head venting. It would be side of head

venting. There you go! Alright. But yeah, so

I mean the way he transforms is he actually swivels

at the waist so this whole bottom half spins

around and becomes his feet. And I have seen

so many of these broken in half at like bins

at BotCon because the waist joint gives out.

He just breaks in half. That's a shame because

I mean this is actually a nice figure I don't

want to say that he's he's a brick because I

know how much you hate that But for the most

part, you know his legs don't separate His arms,

you know, they have Elbows which is a step above

some of the other ones from from the same era,

but other than that You know his he only moves

at the shoulders and his wrists Rotate and that's

about all the articulation. You're gonna get

out of this guy Yeah, I mean we all know that

do you want toys that they weren't made for articulation

for the most part And just looking at his picture

The alt mode does not look like a brick. It looks

like a very sleek formula one racing car You

know you can argue the fact that The legs don't

if the legs don't come apart. Yeah, I could know

well, okay They kind of jam up into the end of

the rest So I mean if that joint were to go which

I think mine didn't like my prowl and some of

those other ones That he would always be short,

you know, but you kind of pull him up and he

stands up straight So at least he's got thighs

But the bottom parts of his legs don't actually

separate They look like they want to I like the

fact that they put his oh they do holy cow They

do they pull apart. I've never done that before

the legs do they do. Yeah, you know it's The

everything from like the knees down is still

one assembly But the the blue plastic comes out

and away from the assembly pieces So his legs

separate, but I mean they're still attached together.

Oh, okay, so it's very much like the g1 jazz

Figure how it it pulls apart, but they're so

Yeah, I had the same type of deal where I've

been playing with jazz for years and suddenly

Oh, wow, the licks actually separate. Yeah, it's

not one big chunk. They actually pull apart Yeah,

it's still one piece. They're still attached

together, but they slide apart So that's kind

of nice. I didn't know that you learn something

new But that's kind of cool I like how now of

course we all know the toys came out before the

cartoon, but You know I'm always all for our

cartoon accuracy, and I like how the toy mirrors

the cartoon with the fact that they have his

little His rocket on his right shoulder Yeah,

yeah, that always bothered me because I know

the rocket was like Well, it's huge. It's long

and on the cartoon. It's like this little stubby

thing that's kind of tucked over behind his head.

But I mean, it was nice that they included it.

But, you know, there's, I don't want to say iconic,

but recognizable parts of Mirage that's always

going to be his shoulder -mounted rocket, which

I just fired at myself. It still shoots, holy

cow. And, you know, as I said, the... the venting

on the sides of his head and his gun, he's got

this long rifle. And every time I see another

Mirage, they tend to mimic that long rifle. Well,

at least they call it the same thing. But yeah,

so I mean, I dig it. It's, again, hard to find

in really good shape, really hard to find with

all of the stickers. Yeah. I'm really happy to

have this one because he's in such just fine

shape He's even got the little dancing girl Gypsy

sticker on the on the side here of his walls

on side of his waist which is You know hard to

find chest stickers wrist stickers stickers.

He's got the leisure and The Ottawa symbol on

the back of his head which you can normally only

see in vehicle mode Mm -hmm. So he's got everything

he's supposed to have Which is like I said pretty

rare. I'm digging this one Yeah, I'd recommended

anybody who collects 1984 transformers Hmm And

lupus who are you gonna be talking about? Well,

I am going to be covering Classics mirage. Yes

so It's the same character, continuity -wise.

And it's very much like the original G1. It's

got the Formula 1 racer. It's got decals all

over the place, or stickers. And he's got his

little rifle, but unlike the G1, this thing was

built for articulation. He's got two elbow joints

in each arm, a wrist joint, double -jointed neck.

double ball jointed actually. And then his legs,

his legs are awesome. They've got like two parts

to the what would be the tibia fibula area of

a leg, the lower part. He's got two joints in

there so you can create this massive like complete

kickback or double pose for the leg. what I really

did like is that they took the concept that they

used of the G1 figure had with the the spoiler

becoming the toes the bottom of the feet and

putting it as a Sliding joint as well as a ball

joint so you can totally flex them all over the

place So you've got What seems to be like an

ankle joint as well? Nice And he's very, very

shiny. Very blue and white and very nice. There's

lots of little throwbacks in the paint scheme.

You've got the classic G1 color scheme, but you've

also got the number 26 from the original release.

You've got on the spoiler a big old sign that

says Witwicky spark plugs. So G1 fans would get

a kick out of that. As well as his front spoiler,

which also becomes his gun. It has Lithonian

drivetrain, which Lithon being the planet from

the beginning of the 86 movie. Honestly, I would

give this figure a 9 out of 10. There's so many

different articulations to him and there's so

much play value in him. There's little things

that I didn't expect, like his gun can be stored

in his chest to give him what looks like a very

feminine hip. It can also pop off and slide into

a slot in the back, so it's like a back holster.

Oh, okay. He's definitely one of the gems out

of the classics line. And, you know, you don't

have to get it in this color. It also came out

in... Turquoise. And what was that? Turquoise

or teal. Well, it also came out in two different

repaints that were widely available. What was

it, the Crasher repaint from 07? Oh, I forgot

about Crasher, yeah. Actually, her name's Fracture,

I think. Yeah. It's a nice nod. It's awesome.

Yeah. The figure looks great in black. I did

a custom of that to make Breastforce member,

which one was it? Jaruga or Jaguar Which came

out pretty decent, but and there's also the The

special edition classics that came out on the

Hasbro website Drag strip. Oh Yeah, I've got

that one. Yeah, he's pretty he is This this figure

just kind of leans itself towards the concept

of a a combiner piece, because the way it's set

up with the end spoiler, if you take it in car

mode and you just flatten out the spoiler, it

makes a perfect foot. Yeah. The downside with

the drag strip, though, is that he doesn't have

all of the, I don't want to say the decals, but

the wiki spark plugs. Yeah, those nice little

throwbacks. Yeah, he's missing all of those.

But I mean, they did a really good job on his

paint job. Definitely. He's just very sharp.

He's all yellow with red highlights. And you

throw some various colors of blue in there and

silver. And he's just a really nice toy. Oh,

that's purple. Purple's in blues. I actually

had to open up the box, the packaging for these.

It's amazing. It's kind of like those Japanese

reissues where you open up the cover and they're

kind of inside the book, inside the cover of

the book, let's say, encased in plastic. But

yeah, the drag sip was really nice. The other

thing I like about this particular figure, again,

is the homage back to the G1 Mirage where the

feet are the spoilers. And the wheels, the rear

wheel, front wheels, I should say, the rear wheels

are part of the feet, part of the ankle. And

the front wheels are pitched back behind the

head. Yep. So very sharp. And the only downside,

I would say, is that he didn't have the shoulder

canon. Now, I think you can get an add -on pack

for these. Yeah. Was it, uh, TFC, I think? Yeah,

I didn't buy that one. But I think they wanted

something like 50 bucks for a set of four guns

or something for the classics line, and I just

couldn't justify it. Yeah, um, but there's...

Which one was it, um... Oh, god, my brain's not

functioning tonight. I hate it when that happens.

The G... You know, well, I mean, it's worse for

me when it's my brain, but... uh... the g three

trailer i believe also comes with uh... add -on

weapons that's stored inside of it oh yeah and

uh... i remember that this wasn't uh... i want

to say there was a kid that that was supposed

to come with uh... like three weapons and one

of the race the yeah the cassette crane the cassette

with the yet and i think that here at the crane

for inferno Yeah Yeah, that same set that I don't

really know what happened with that as far as

I know it Maybe it hasn't come out yet. Oh, it's

come out Vangelis has been trying to sell off

his extra pieces for a while Yeah, I just couldn't

justify 50 bucks on that Or however much it costs

I remember being expensive um you know I'm looking

at the classics mirage here on TF wiki and Like

the alt mode. I'm not too crazy on the robot

mode, and it's actually very funny a lot some

of the wiki Taglines for some of the pictures

are very funny the one for the classic says applying

to rival tech club rejected Which kind of goes

in line with what what you were saying earlier

that he's got a ton of articulation and His head

is on a ball joint and all that other stuff because

it's what a lot of the rival tech stuff is on

It's it's actually a double a Double ball joint.

It's like there's a For lack of a better term

a long bone. I mean, it's just this rod with

two two ball joints one goes into the actual

neck Crevice and then the other one goes into

the the head so you can move the head forward

or backwards and still rotate it Yeah, nice.

I mean, honestly, there's a reason why rebel

tech figures don't transform If you gave double

ball joints to every piece of Mirage, you'd never

get him back in the vehicle mode. True. I mean,

they're made with hinge joints in certain places

and swivel joints in other places, specifically

so that you can get him back into something that

will hold his shape as a car. But given that

as a starting point, Uh, he's really, really

posable. You can do all sorts of cool things

with him. I've done plenty of, um, handstands

with him, actually. Yeah. Or, um, martial arts,

like, high kicks. Yeah. And things like that.

Yeah, I think they did a really good job with

the articulation on all, uh, of the classics

line. But this one in particular. Really good.

It blows everything out of the AEC out of the

way. Like, it just blows it out of the water.

I mean, if you put this next to some of the other

figures that got repainted in classics, it definitely

makes it stand out a lot more. For lack of a

better term, I guess. Oh, did you include the

Bicom exclusive? I did not. That would be number

four. Yeah, they repainted it. Yeah, it wasn't

even a repaint. It was just clear blue plastic,

which I thought was a bit of a cop -out. Well,

if it was completely clear, like white, or like

clear -clear, but I was really happy when I got

that. Really? I mean, he's blue. I mean, I could

understand it if they had left the paint on him

and maybe put the stickers on over it so that...

so that you could get the impression that he

was transparent, but that he wasn't actually

transparent. I'll be honest, I have a weakness

for clear plastic. I'm one of the few people

that is very excited in owning the clear protoform

figures from the first movie. Those are kind

of like the highlights of my collection. Pretty

bad when it comes to my clear plastic toys You

know, I really like the clear alternators mirage

And well, that wasn't even all thing. It was

the Japanese version but I'll tech that yeah,

they released a clear one yes, and that was it

was sharp, you know because he was still he still

had the stripes and You know, I mean you could

see he still had his paint and you could you

know, you could see him still being Mirage, but

it was just see -through. Yep. I didn't get that

one. I think they released a clear one for the

red repaint. I think that was Rodimus. Yeah,

they're Rodimus. If there's one person that would

know that, that would be the GD Proto Man. Yeah,

he'd know. So are we done with Classics Mirage?

Yeah, I mean he's still relatively easy to find

on eBay. It shouldn't cost too much if you were

interested in picking one up. So check it out

if you get the opportunity. And for my pick,

going once again back to muddy mugs, since I'm

on this big muddy mugs kick and I must have all

of the Transformers muddy mugs. Hopefully, by

the time this episode airs, I will have my Wave

3 case. In the last episode, I talked about Grimlock,

and in this one, I'm going to be talking about

Starscream. Now, first of all, I like Starscream

in the G1 cartoon. Yeah, yeah, I think you blinked

out there for a second. Oh, did I wasn't last

heard? What was the last thing you heard that

actually yeah It came through fine and it sounded

like me mumbling to myself in the background

going is that hello? Yeah Some it it might be

fine And head damn it there you go and uh...

wings or something and uh... isn't actually have

guns on his arms because they were too cheap

to mold them and uh... i think that's about it

anything to add shut up it's probably going to

increase what everything's fine here how are

you can you hear me now? yes i can i can hear

you both again okay good alright well uh... that

has kinda sucked um... really quick my I don't

like Starscream that well. Never really liked

his character. I liked him in G1. I liked him

throughout all the cartoon continuity for the

most part. I am one of the only people that are

glad that he dies every single time. Ah! Uh,

yeah. Alright, Thomas is gonna kick you square

nuts. There you go! Yeah, but still, anyway.

I like it when Starscream has stuff happen to

him, especially when... Prowl pretty much sucked

the life spark, the all -spark fragment out of

his head and animated. Anyway, so I got the Mighty

Mugs Starscream. First of all, only complaint

about this figure. They painted the symbols on

wrong. In the Hasbro, not concept art, but like

official photos. It shows him with his wings

attached down and the symbols are upright but

he is supposed to have his wings pointing up

and the symbols are upside down. Now there really

isn't, unless you decide to deform your Mighty

Mugs and put a sticker on there, there really

isn't any way to change it because it's painted

on unless you're one of these, you know, sculpted

skilled people who can do redeco's, which I am

not. The wings do attach. As Michael said while

we were having our audio issues the null rays

are painted onto his arm And my face is a sticker

He's a sticker what? No razor painted on his

face is a sticker his face is not a sticker Yeah

Another one of those ongoing jokes must have

missed that so It doesn't look like a sticker,

I'm sitting here scratching it and nothing is

coming off, so yeah, it's not a sticker. Scratch

it too hard, you'll pop his giant balloon head.

I don't understand why you hate Mighty Mugs.

You know what, really, honestly, when I get my

Wave 3, I may just send you the movie Optimus

and movie Bubble Bee. I'll charge you for shipping,

but I'll send them to you regardless. I don't

want to... I might get the Jazz, though. I won't

compromise with you there. You gotta get the

shockwave to the shockwave is awesome. Anyway,

um after Starscream one of the things as The

Mighty Muggs continually surprised me. I was

surprised on the Cobra commander one that he

came with a detachable cape But what surprises

me on the Starscream one is how detailed they

what kind of depth they put into his chest like

the the two black pieces which I guess are in

his alt -mortar supposed to be landing gear they

look like I mean they're they're very defined

and then of course he's got the cockpit with

the Decepticon logo on it you know main colors

are dark navy blue light blue light green red

and black and silver around his waist he does

have the the smirk on his face. It's actually

very funny. He has the smirk and Megatron has

the frown. I had to bring Megatron out off the

shelf because it's Megatron and Starscream, you

know. It's actually very funny. I took a picture

the other day. My intent was for it to look like

they were cutting a WWE promo where they were

pretty much nose to nose, face to face. Kind

of like something Triple H would do to Batista

or something like that. He knows the names. And

shut up. I took a picture of it, put it on Twitter

and Facebook, and a few people on Twitter said,

oh my god, it looks like they're kissing. Like,

not enough fucking kissing. Not what you were

going for. Yeah, people just totally didn't understand

that. The wings are a rubbery plastic, so they

do kind of bend a little bit. Again, they are

detachable. Since I've had them in, I'm going

to leave them in because that's what Starscream

should look like. I don't think we should take

his wings away from him. He'd be very sad. Sad

Starscream panda. So overall, great figure. I

think if you're one of those G1 collectors, or

if you like... G1 shelf displays or, you know,

figures for display only. That's what the Mighty

Mugs are for, really. They're not really for

play. You know, they don't transform, obviously.

And, you know, for me, I'm just so glad that

I have all these Transformers ones. And as I've

said before, I've started branching out into

other Mighty Mugs, like I have a Cobra Commander

one. I'm... Probably gonna end up getting a human

torch and a ghost rider one from the Marvel series

I just I like them. They're just great Hey kids,

it's Mikey and he likes it That's a lifestyle

myself that's a that's a life serial promo there

Actually, I think they kind of skimped a little

bit on the paint. On Starscream? How? Well, I

got him up on the screen here, I'm looking at

him, and I dig it how they have his feet painted,

you know, because if you look at the actual G1

Starscream figure, the way that his feet fold

out, you can see where the shadows are, they

kind of show the... the feet coming out, and

then the knees. Those look just like the G1 version.

But there's a lot of other detail that they're

skipping on. Such as? Well, things like the G1

seekers, their hands popped off and popped back

on. And the way they kind of get away with that

is they look like gloves. so that the sides kind

of look like gloves that come over the arms.

Whereas here, they kind of dance around that

issue by making his arms blue all the way up

to the bicep and then giving him kind of mechanical

fingers. Yeah, I can see your point on that,

but I think that they were going for more cartoon

accuracy than toy accuracy when they... when

they're doing these things. Yeah, again, you

know, the way the feet and the knees are painted.

I don't so much remember the cartoon having the

feet and the knees like that. Yeah. Whereas the

figure, yeah, looks just like that. Well, no,

he did. He had the blue feet or the... He did

have two different shades. I'll take a screencap

later, and I'll email it to you about the cartoon,

but anyway Yeah, he had like also stickers on

his chest stickers down on his waist level That

you know that they're not really showing here,

and I think that they did a really good job with

Optimus Prime and Megatron to kind of bring out

all the detail that you would see not just in

the cartoon but on the figure itself. Yeah. And

with this one I just feel like they skimped a

little. Well there is a lot of room on the Starscream

figure whether it's the toy or the or the cartoon

model to really like put like additional like

I've got Megatron here and he's got the On the

back of him, he's got like the... I showed it

to you on video last time. On the back, yeah.

He's got the gun barrel painted on his back.

You know, Starscream, again, the two main things

that I noticed, obviously, was the cockpit with

the symbol. I thought that was really cool. And

then these two black pieces, which I guess are

supposed to signify that... That's where he hides

his landing gear or something. I don't know.

The air intakes? Yeah, the engine intake. And

on some figures, that's where the missiles pop

out. Yeah. You know, the null rays being painted

on, I don't mind the fact that he doesn't have

a weapon with him, unlike some of the others.

I think the only ones out of the entire TF Mighty

Mugs line that do not have weapons, Starscream,

Bumblebee, And... No, you can't. Shockwave has

the gun attached to his arm. What about Jazz?

Jazz has a gun. So I think Starscream and Bumblebee

are the only two out of the entire Mighty Mugs

TF line that don't have weapons. And honestly

I don't mind it because... He's got wings. yeah

well I mean he's got wings but you know how can

you not have a Starscream figure that doesn't

have you know something similar to to the cartoon

that that would make him look like the cartoon

or the original toy model so you would have to

include wings either in the like on the see I

think that's the difference Michael or Michael

Wilson where there's not enough paint that there's

not a lot of detail The reason being is they

put the detail in these separated wings, whereas

on the Megatron figure you have all this paint

detail on the back of them instead of having

it separate as a separate piece. Yeah. Well,

I mean, I understand the whole concept of, you

know, you have to choose where you put your paint

applications. You have to choose where you spend

the money for the extra plastic for the accessories.

You know, it all has to balance out along with

how much money you're spending on packaging so

that You know when you make 10 ,000 of them and

you sell them all at a certain price you're gonna

make money So I see that But at the same time

it's like well, you know could have been that

much better. I still wouldn't buy one As much

as I love Starscream I probably wouldn't buy

one for myself I'm I don't think I would pick

one up except for maybe the fact that I've seen

The videos that people have done with him, like

Gogdog has done with... Yeah, the Gogdog videos

are funny as hell. I don't think I could see

myself picking it up for 20 bucks. They're 20

bucks? Well, no, the one on BBTS, the individual

one was sold out. All the ones on BBTS that I've

seen that aren't like part of a case, like part

of four... All the individual ones range from,

like, $9 to $17 .99. Like, I know if you buy

Shockwave and Jazz individually on BBTS, they're

$17 .99 a piece. Well, how much do they normally

retail in stores? I don't know, because I've

never seen stores. I think they're, like, $12

at Target. Which isn't bad, though. $12 .99?

Yeah, but I mean, that's not bad. I mean, you

know, gross in total, just because I'm an impatient

bastard, for all... Oh, of course. That's what

the listener's like, is honesty. Yeah, but the

fact of the matter is, if you wait three months,

it's gonna be in the stores. If you wait another

three months, it's gonna be in a clearance bin,

and you're gonna get it for five bucks. Yes,

well, we're not all like you who can steal Transformers

from Target. I think I've spent in total on all

three waves. I've probably spent over... I've

spent $200. Yeah, I don't think the goal is to

spend more money. No, I understand that, but

all right. Okay, first of all... I thought the

goal was he who has the most toys wins. There

you go. There you go. I win. Shut up. I think

Proto Man might win actually. Yeah, yeah, Proto

Man would win, but you'd come in a close second.

Yeah. But, um, you know, I came in late to the

Mighty Mucks. I didn't come into them, you know,

I didn't start getting into them and liking them

until... I don't even know what got me started

liking them. I have no idea. And I just happened

to go on eBay one day and I thought for all four

of the Wave 1, Megatron, Optimus, Grimlock, not

Grimlock, Soundwave and Bumblebee, I thought

60 bucks plus free shipping was a good deal.

The only way I could get Starscream at a decent

enough deal was to get him in the case with the

Optimus, Grimlock and Bumblebee. I paid outside

of shipping I paid $40 and then the problem with

the wave 3 figures is they're Toys R Us exclusives

in stores so because the nearest Toys R Us is

like on the other side of my town and I don't

drive getting them on that eBay auction for $91

which again they're coming from overseas so that

that's why they're that expensive You know, I

don't mind it. So I mean $200 for eight figures

It sounds kind of crazy, but I'm sure people

have paid a lot more for one figure than just

eight One Mighty Mug figure? No, one trans figure

in general. Oh, not one Mighty Mug figure, one

Transformers figure in general. I got a bridge

in Brooklyn, I'd like to sell it. Lord... Just

let me get the gold spray paint out, we can fix

that real quick. Alright, so anyways, I think

we're done with the toy discussion, I think we're

gonna go into a break and then we will come back

with the outro. The Autobots would have lost

eons ago if I'd been calling the shots! My time

will come Megatron! Thanksgiving is just one

week away and Christmas is right around the corner.

Are you looking for a gift for family members

and friends that is slightly not the average

gift? Well look no further. I am TF2 and Mike

from the Geekcast Radio Network and besides podcasting

I am also a published author of poetry. I have

three books of poetry published and one for sale

right now. It is The Twists of Faith and Fate.

This is an 85 page softcover book. It comes signed

and only costs $20 per copy. I have 20 or more

copies available for more details, email me at

tfg1podcast at gmail .com. There once was a boy,

an albino, I'm told, who possessed the power

of pen pusher gold. He had many stories, all

short and exciting, but nobody knew, and so he

began writing. He sat there all summer and skillfully

sought to perfectly ponder and polish each plot.

The settings were set, all the characters cast,

his fingers were flying and flailing so fast,

and soon the young man with the snowy complexion

quickly concocted the caffeine collection. He

smiled, satisfied with his clever creation. Oh,

the things that did pour from his imagination.

From the author of the podcast novel, Black Shadow,

Steve Saylor presents The Caffeine Collection,

a dynamic audiobook collection of short stories

presented by ringtonefeeder .com. and stevesaylor

.net. Steve presents a genre mashup of multiple

stories for your ears. I have to be on caffeine

to write all this. Steve Saylor presents The

Caffeine Collection on sale October 28, 2009.

So mark this day down so you will not forget.

For more information, stevesaylor .net. The TFG1

Podcast has 24 action packed discussion episodes

on the original Transformers cartoon. So if you're

a fan of the 80's cartoon we have all you need

and more! As well as an interview with Stan Bush

you can find us on iTunes and the web at www

.geekcastradio .com Tune in. a beast within you.

Transformers Toycast has been transformed! into

just toy cast for the past 25 episodes we have

talked about just transformers toys now starting

with the 26th episode which is currently out

we're expanding into all toy collections you

can find us on iTunes and the web at www .geekcastradio

.com transform and transcend do you like reminiscing

on the cartoons of old well look no further Tooncast

is dedicated to the cartoons you grew up with

From the fifties to the nineties, all manner

of classic cartoons will be discussed. We even

had the chance to interview Lionel, Lord of the

Thundercats. Yes, that's right, Larry Kenny.

You can find us on iTunes and the web at www

.geekcastradio .com. Alright, well that's it

for this episode of Toycast. I'd like to thank

Pick on Court Michael for joining me as always.

And the return of Lupus Convoy from TFW. Thanks

for having me back. Yes, of course. Anytime.

Honestly, anytime anybody who collects... Podcasts,

for me, are an evolving thing. We're not just

talking about Transformers anymore. We can talk

about pretty much any toy line, even though the

majority of the stuff that I talk about is going

to be Transformers, because that's what I'm kind

of limiting my obsession and my funds to. Kind

of like Mr. Wilson over there, his wife said,

you can have one collection, but that's it. Don't

cheapen the experience there Blanchard So yeah,

we've opened it up to all all toy lines if anybody

wants to come on They're more than welcome to

you can send me an email at TFG one podcast at

gmail .com Coming up from geek cast radio We

have as I said in the intro or the general chatter

or whatever I said in this episode Michael myself

and Steve Megatron We'll be starting the Beast

Unleashed podcast. It'll be a review series on

Beast Wars and Beast Machines. The actual review

episodes won't start until January 2010, but

the episode zero in the interview that Steve

and I did with David Kaye will be up this Saturday,

December 12th. So yeah, you got anything project

-wise you're doing, Lubas? After I get out of...

this semester I am looking at picking up another

novel and either finishing it off or starting

an old short story and converting it to a novella.

Oh, okay, cool. Yes, and you and I will eventually,

as soon as I get the Justice League DVD set,

you and I will be doing the Secret Origins podcast.

I am psyched. Yes, we will. I am going to try

to launch that February, but I don't know, it

just depends on what Santa brings me for Christmas.

More muddy mugs? No, I'm done with the muddy

mugs. Unless somebody else buys me other ones,

I'm done with the Transformers ones. I have them

all. I never said it had to be Transformers.

That's true, too. Oh, no. Yeah, I've got the

Justice League complete series set on my list

for Christmas. So we'll hopefully be starting

that in February. Other than that, that's pretty

much it. So I think we're going to go into the

closing. Thank you for joining us here on Toycast.

There are several ways to get in contact with

us to leave feedback for the show. First is you

can visit www .GeekCastRadio .com. Find all the

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You can find our threads in their self -promotion

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We now have a voicemail line. Call us and leave

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You can follow us on Twitter. The show name there

is TF Toycast. Mine is TFG1Mike. And Lupus, what

is your Twitter? It's C -A -M -I -N -I -T -I

-S -T -Y -L -E. And Michael, Mr. Wilson, what

is yours? It's not Mickey Mouse. Yes it is. It's

a running joke, just say it. Pecan Court Michael,

P -E -C -A -N -C -T -M -I -C -H -A -E -L M -O

-U -S -A. We hope you enjoyed this episode of

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and LupusConvoy from the TFW Podcast saying any

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visit TFW2005 .com.