Brian Kilby on Transformers Toys and the Future of the Franchise

Oh, that was kind of a dingus. Cliffjumper! Commence

countdown! Five! Four! Three! Two! Hello, and

welcome to the 30th 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, TFG1Mike, and joining me for

the first time ever is Brian Kilby from Radio

Free Cybertron. Hello. Hello. How's it going?

Pretty good. How are you? Great. It's Monday.

It's the start of the work week, and the start's

over. So it's pretty good in here. Yeah, you

know back to the grind before we get into the

discussion here like to mention one of the Last

-minute holiday things big bad toy store comm

is running holiday sale 50 clearance items We

have just further reduced pricing on 50 items

that would make great gifts for some on your

list or Yeah, or also a nice addition to your

own shelf Check out the list below for great

details on GI or great deals on GI Joe exclusives

transformers Various action figures and more

there is still plenty of time to order for holiday

delivery with ground shipping So take your time

and browse through the site for some excellent

gifts I gotta say I love big bad toy store comm

they're awesome. Yeah, I just got a package today

wasn't expecting it someone had gifted me the

secret Santa no less Device label ravaged so

that was that was a very excellent surprise.

So I love big bad toy store Yeah, um, I've placed

two orders with them so far I got the and everybody

else knows this but I got the I got the Cobra

commander mighty mug And I got the the wave to

Transformers mighty mugs. It was the only way

I could get Starscream and Grimlock in one in

one thing or else I have to find Starscream somewhere

else like eBay or something like that and Yeah,

they are just I mean super fat I mean, the Last

Order, I think I placed it on the first of December.

It got here the fourth. Yeah, I've been using

Big Bad Toy Store for, goodness, almost 10 years,

and I never had one single problem. Yeah, they're

excellent. Yeah, they very, very much are. And

yeah, I've used EntertainmentEarth .com as well

a couple of times. One reason why I use them

was because... I follow them on Twitter and they

posted something like, you know, last in stock

item and it was wave 4 of the universe classics

2 .0, whatever you want to call it, figures.

It was Hound, Cheetor, Cyclonus, and uh, what

was the other one in that damn lot? Oh crap,

I can't think. People are screaming at their

iPods right now. It's this, it's this. Crap,

what is that other smoke screen? No, in Wave

4 it was Cyclonus. Oh, Cyclonus Hound, Cheetor,

and Starscream. Starscream I traded to a buddy

of mine with the two Mighty Mugs that I had doubles

of for leader class Megatron from Animated. But

yeah, the only two figures I was even interested

in from the universe Wave 4 was the Hound and

the Cyclonus. And really I only wanted the Hound

for Ravage. Yeah, Ravage, that's probably, well,

until I got this today, because this is actually

a working USB drive. That was definitely my favorite

version of Ravage. Yeah, the USB drive, as much

as I don't, I mean, we've talked about this before

on Toycast, but as much as I think that, what

is it, one, what is it, two gigs? Yeah, two gigs

isn't much, but I mean, you're not buying it

to be a functional USB drive. That is true. Yeah,

you're buying it to be either a virtual kitty

or a real live kitty. Of course, Universe Ravage

just tipped over. Bastard cat. So why don't we

talk a little bit about you, sir? Because this

is the first time you and I have collaborated.

I've heard of Radio Free Cybertron, but yeah.

When you talk about Offer, I just got into podcasting

back in 2007. You've been doing radio shows,

podcast shows, whatever you want to call them,

since what, 99 or earlier? Yeah, I've worked

in actual real radio for almost 12 years now.

I've been sort of like an internet trans fan

for probably nearly as long. I started out on

the school's computer. When I actually got my

own home computer in 99, I wanted to do something

sort of different to carve out a niche. I said,

well, why don't I do a Transformers Internet

radio show? Nobody is doing that. Nobody is really

thinking about it. Nobody is really doing Internet

radio shows either. So I came up with the idea

a couple of months later, November or October

of 99. I did my first broadcast and I did it

probably for five years. Stopped for four or

five years and came back earlier this year June

28th or so and I've been chugging along ever

since Very very cool. Yes. We everybody knows,

you know, we here at geek cast radio network

we We started in 2008 and we're already almost

in a 2010 and we have like over Over nine shows

running concurrently. I think there's like four

shows that run consecutively each week and yeah

just overall I mean I really enjoy it hell I

wish I could get paid for it but yeah me too

you know so I guess we'll get right into the

toy discussion I am going to go first and I am

picking universe hound with ravage as I said

earlier I like this ravage but I wish he his

head didn't look like laser beak I mean because

really if you look at his head is his neck is

like super long And then he kind of almost has

a beak and not not an actual jaguar mouth I Don't

know it's kind of weird I wish I could I should

have got those old rockets because I haven't

I haven't tested that out yet supposedly The

G1 version's rockets can fit in this, but I've

never tested it yet. Oh, me neither. I haven't

either. I didn't know that it would. I just assumed

that it wouldn't. Well, I remember hearing it

from Pia's review of Hound and Ravage. I just

haven't tested it yet. But I think it was nice

that they kind of molded them into his leg, like

the top of his leg, right by the... Right about

where the tail is, they're kinda like molded

on to look like them, even though they're not

painted silver, it's just black. I thought that

was kinda cool. The tail looks like it could

poke somebody's eye out. It's not sharp or anything

on the point, but it just looks like if you stick

it in your eye, it's gonna hurt. You'll poke

your eye out. Yeah. Shoot your eye out, kid!

Overall, I like this. I probably like him better

in tape mode. Just because he can actually fit

on the back of Hound. Everybody knows that I

have problems transforming toys, don't ask me

why. That's why I buy two toys. When I first

got animated blur, I broke his legs off. I didn't

do it intentionally. They just kind of popped

off because I couldn't figure out the transformation.

I've never actually broken a toy since G1. I'm

happy to say that. Even like Binaltech or Alternators,

I never managed to break one, though I really

wanted to intentionally. And with Hound, I got

him transformed to the point where his chest

part of the Jeep is supposed to, the whole chest

chassis is supposed to fold down. Couldn't get

it to do that somehow. I ended up getting his

head out I don't know how that happened so I

said screw it instead of just leaving him in

a you know hulking of mistransformation heap

I transformed him back into Jeep mode and his

head is exposed so you can see where he's going

now But yeah, there's a lot of nice, I mean,

not a lot of toys have like molded steering wheel

and dashboard gauges inside them. Not at this

scale. Maybe like Voyager class or something,

but for Deluxe, definitely not. Yeah, I mean,

this is very, very cool. Also, the seats are

very ingenious when you transform him into robot

mode because they become the knees. I thought

that was really cool. It was a nice way to To

make a transformation different because I mean

I mean if you think about it most transformations

at least the ones that I that I've seen outside

of animated but most like other transformations

are kind of like The best example I can give

you is g1 hot rod where You pull out the legs,

you separate them, you fold the arms out, you

fold the chest over, and there's his head with

the screw in the back of it. I mean, you know,

but I think this is a very, very ingenious thing.

I am glad that I do have this, even though his

head is exposed. But, you know, he's just a really,

really cool figure. He's actually my favorite

toy from the universe iteration of the classics

toy. I was really enamored with it. I mean, I

see his flaws, but I don't know. I guess it's

possibly the fact that he's proportioned almost

like a Dreamwave drawing with sort of like a

large massive lower part of his body and his

upper part of his body is kind of disproportionately

small. But I just really enjoy that toy even

more than Cyclonus. Pete I get a lot of grief

for that, but I really really like that toy and

that that's blasphemy cyclonus best universe

figure I Think that he's not the best because

I have the best here actually in my right hand

He's not my favorite, but he's the best what

which one on slot. Oh, okay. Well all right compare

Cyclonus to other Cyclonus is even the g1 version

that cyclonus the universe one is the best one

i mean you know it is you all you want about

about the hend k as far as the coloring honestly

i watched the g one cartoon a lot especially

season three when you see cyclones a lot and

i think the u .s. version is more cartoon accurate

when it comes to color than the hend k lavender

is But, you know, people are going to say the

Henkei one is more cartoon accurate. I just don't

see it. I'm sorry. I would end up giving that

to a girl for Christmas, the Henkei version,

because it's lavender purple. Yeah, and like

if you read like on coloring for TV and everything,

I mean, the way that it looks on screen doesn't

necessarily translate to the way it would look.

you know, in hand. Just the way that the screen

is lit, when the character was colored, what

sort of lighting there was. It really just doesn't

necessarily, it's not analog to actually owning

a toy or owning a physical representation of

that item. So yeah, I would say that he's probably

more accurate than the Hing K version. I'm not

a big fan of the Hing K version either. I can

kinda get to like it, the only reason why, honestly,

the only reason why I would want the NK version

is because of the chrome nightstick. While I

like the dark purple cyclonus himself, I don't

like the US version nightstick. I don't know,

it just, he's all purple. As much as I am a,

I mean my two favorite colors are black and purple,

but that purple just doesn't work for me on nightstick.

You know, honestly, Silver, Purple, I didn't

buy the toy from them. It's great that Night

Sticks there. It's great that they use the Target

Master Gimmick, but the real centerpiece of that

set is Cyclonus. He's a very, very good toy.

Nightstick is great. To me, Nightstick is completely

ancillary to the toy where Ravage, as far as

Hound goes, is a real primary reason to own it.

Because Ravage is a very good representation

of the character, if you can call him a character.

But it's just great that they went with Ravage

for Hound if they had to have sort of like a

familiar or a pack -in toy because of, of course,

the early G1. meets the eye part two or three

where Ravage and Hound went at it or am I thinking

role for it? No, no, it was part two. It was

more than meets the eye part two. Actually it's

very funny. I went back and I watched some G1

stuff and Ravage in G1, at least the first two

seasons, I really, I think he's my favorite cassette

in the cartoon out of those first two seasons

and I actually grabbed the audio. from when he

was captured by the Autobots and Hound was teasing

him with the key. So I'll probably put that either

at the beginning of this or the end of this episode.

Yeah, Cyclonus is really cool as well. He's got

a really nice jet mode. Hound, I'm actually looking

at the wiki here. I guess because of copyright

laws they couldn't make the front look like Jeep

anymore because I'm looking at the G1 toy and

it it looks like a a Jeep vehicle and if you

look down at the at the Universe toy it I mean

it looks like it obviously it's a Jeep but it

doesn't like look like the the Jeep brand name

because of the front grill is different than

everything else. Overall, great figure. I'm glad

I have him even though I can't transform him

into robot mode to save my life. So what will

you be talking about, sir? Universe Ultra Onslaught.

He is of course part of the Classics 2 .0 line.

He is, more importantly, he's one of the greatest

transformers ever, and he's $11 at your local

Walmart. Walmart is clearancing him out for $11

by four of them. There's no doubt that he's the

best representation of Onslaught ever. The original

Onslaught toy itself is an okay action figure,

so to speak, but as a Transformer, it's kind

of pathetic. His alt mode, the carrier, is pretty

weak. It's long and it's kind of boring looking.

This toy is exceptional in basically every way.

It's an excellent homage to the original design

while surpassing it in every conceivable way.

The designers have gone where there might have

been a hint of something in the original toy

like these shoulders. They completely and totally

just completely went in a completely different

direction. The colors are reminiscent without

being so closely bound to the toy to detract

from it. The detailing on it is great. Swat text

is great. More importantly on the back, on the

back of the shoulder, it says Monzo12782 and

as most people know that's the screen name and

birthdate of Monzo who is a Transformers fan

and one of the citizens or denizens at the TFWiki.

He's helped out Hasbro over the years with reacquiring

a lot of the trademarks that they've lost. So

that was sort of a little favor to him. It's

like, hey, what's your birthday? And this is

your screen name, right? OK, thank you. And several

months later, he actually saw the toy with his

name on it in Toy Fair. That had to be like an

insane experience. But the transformation is

not difficult. It's kind of like an accidental

homage to the original toy. The vehicle mode

is really secondary to the robot mode. It's okay,

it's not bad, and it totally looks like a SWAT

vehicle. That's sort of boring, but the robot

mode is truly excellent. Also, it's electronic,

and the electronics don't detract from the actual

toy. That's always been a problem, for me anyway,

with electronic transformers. I love, I absolutely,

positively love Armada Jetfire. But I can't tell

you how many times I've moved the tub that he's

in and I've heard the countdown of his gun get

in the way. This right here, I mean, the sound

effects are good. You don't accidentally trigger

them. Overall, it's a great toy. I have very

few complaints about it. The robot mode is sublime.

It's one of the nicer robot modes of any transformer

that we've had. It's not too complicated, it's

not too simple. It's really, in my mind, what

a G1 toy would have been, fast forward 20 years,

you know, improvements in technology and such.

I mean, he's awesome. Buy 10 of them, they're

$11, for goodness sake. Yeah, I'm looking at

the picture of him on the TF Wiki and... It occurred

to me if you took the wheels off you took the

tank turret off and you made him a little bit

more circular It would be cosmos Maybe he does

kind of look you could remold him into cosmos

and I would love that because I love cosmos Let's

see spray a little bit more, but I've left cosmos.

Yeah See spray always talk like a little any

spray Wow, you can actually do it. Holy crap

I'm assuming you've tried out for the voice acting

client. I've never bothered doing that. I don't

think they've ever done the Sea Spray character

for any of the BotCon stories. If they did, I

would totally be there. Do you have anything

else you would like to talk about? Maybe the

new cartoon or anything like that? Moonbase 2,

they talked with David Wise a few weeks ago.

He talked about how he was participating with

Hasbro in some unknown project, but he could

tell more later. Then they talked to Michael

Bell last week and Michael Bell tipped his hat.

He was auditioning for the role of Ratchet, I

guess, and Prowl. It looks like the new cartoon,

which we knew was imminent, is even further along

in production than we knew. The fact that David

Wise is working on it and the fact that Michael

Bell is auditioning for it, not that that really

means that it's going to be a G1 homage. It kind

of lets you think, hey, maybe this is closer

to being a G1 homage than we realize. From the

pictures? From the game? Now, I don't know if

the game is going to tie into the cartoon. From

the pictures from the game, yeah, that looks

awesome. Hey, look, I'm not too big into modern

gaming. For me, I'm very much an 8 -bit and 16

-bit gamer. I don't really care so much for the

3D games. But yeah, the new game looks kind of

like, sort of almost like a War Within wannabe

in the designs. Or maybe... I've only saw one

screenshot. It may be kind of like a cross of

what War Within plus maybe Cybertron almost would

look like. It's actually funny, when that news

broke last week, we had just finished our David

Kay interview, but we weren't going to be putting

it up until this passed. Saturday so in the interview

if people have listened to it, you can head over

to geekcastradio .com to listen to it Yes, that

was a shameless plug At the end I I think the

final question to him was what is it? What how

does it feel that he's the only transformer or

he's the only voice actor in transformers history

to switch sides and I mentioned something about

him Outside of Sue blue he is probably the longest

person that's involved in it outside of her and

he goes Oh, yes, and she still will be My jaw

just dropped to the floor I didn't think he was

gonna drop a bomb like that and David had told

us that he that he has read everything When it

comes to the new cartoon, you know, whatever

that they've made available He didn't say whether

he was gonna be in it or even auditioning for

it. But if he's ready, he's auditioned for it

Yeah, that's true. That's awesome. I love David

Kay. He's incredibly talented. When we interviewed

Gary Chalk, we didn't ask him about the new series.

We really didn't think in terms of the new series.

We were more interested in his career up to this

point. I would love to see Gary Chalk and or

David Kaye back to reprise their role in sort

of the recurring battle of good versus evil.

I love Gary Chalk as Optimus Primal and as Optimus

Prime. David Kaye makes a great Megatron. His

Optimus was very good, but his Optimus was very

human, which is what I loved about it. Download

our interview with him you get special art that

that Steve Megatron had drawn up he didn't draw

it up He took a picture. I told him to find a

picture of Human optimist prime from the human

error episode of TFA, which it it's basically

a dead ringer for David gay and that's that's

our exclusive art for that for that that episode

or that that that interview and You know, you

know what? I honestly I would love to see and

I know this probably will never happen. I would

love to hear and see Peter Cullen is as g1 optimus

and Gary Chalk as shattered glass optimus Then

the two of them working together that would be

awesome Yeah, that would be I like you said down

anything like that would ever happen. But who

knows transformers keeps growing Hasbro's budget

keeps getting bigger and bigger. Maybe down the

road they could afford to do something like that

Yeah, I was doing some more research for another

show tune cast and I've gotten way past a certain

I think I'm up in the episode 40s for that but

I was doing research for episode 35 which is

our episode on go bots or challenge of the go

bots or whatever the hell you want to call it

I looked up the go bots movie and it says in

there This movie will never be on DVD because

Hasbro bought out Tonka's licenses for it and

because Hasbro owns Transformers, it's not in

their interest to ever release GoBots on DVD.

That seemed like that was colored with some sort

of fan opinion. That doesn't sound incredibly

factual. I mean, Hasbro has used the GoBots name

in the past. They've used the names like Leader

One showed up in Armada. Well, the GoBots cartoon

really does suck hard. Other than maybe possibly

losing money and releasing the DVD, they don't

really have a reason not to, other than it's

probably not ever financially viable to do. Yeah,

that's true. They could always include it in

some freebie thing, like a Battle Begins 2 -pack

or something. Absolutely. That would be fantastic.

In fact, if Hasbro's listening, you should do

that. Yes What else I you know, it's funny since

the movie died down I mean, yeah I know we've

got you know, the movie news is pretty much died

down since it's already on a DVD and and since

I Mean the cartoon is coming, but we don't like

have any specific details Transformers news is

kind of dead outside of toy releases Yeah, that's

the cool thing about running a Transformers podcast

or a Transformers website. There is so much Transformers

history to look back on and to work with. If

you can't produce a Transformers podcast or a

Transformers website or a Transformers blog or

a Transformers message board without news, you

might want to try harder. Years ago, when I first

became a fan, everyone had G1 in the comic to

look back on and to remember fondly. Transformers

is such a huge property. While there's not that

much news, years ago news would be, oh, Big Lots

got in a bunch of these old G2 watches. Go to

your Big Lots to look for the watch. So, yeah,

there's not a lot of news, but it's still a really

good time to be a Transformers fan. A really,

really good time. I think the problem with...

First of all, I'm not a movie toy line fan. Me

neither. Don't like. First of all, it's okay

in a film because you want realism to show every

working part of Optimus Prime. That's fine for

the film. But I don't want to see the arm guts

on the toy. There's only one movie toy that I

bought and that was Ravage. Just because Ravage

is so cool and he has no... Move it. I mean outside

of his tail and his mouth in his closet I mean

he doesn't because I you don't buy revenge of

the fallen ravage for the alt mode. Let's face

it don't I Mean they don't even package it in

the alt mode. Yeah. Yeah, they package it in

the in the cat mode I think the problem with

and you know, and you can expound on this if

you want to I think the problem with movie 2

Was overexposure There are lots of problems with

the movie too. Okay. Well, I'm not talking about

the actual film. I'm talking about the way Stuff

came out. I haven't talked about how much news

came out at one time It was just over saturated

so much. I Mean by the by the time two weeks

before the release in the in in the theaters

They were talking about movie three and I kept

saying damn it. I don't want to hear about movie

three I haven't even seen movie two yet Yeah.

I mean, the movie is huge. It's going to end

up being the biggest movie of 2009. Nothing's

going to top it. New Moon's not going to top

it. Did it already? No, it was 140 million the

last I checked. Let me sorry to make an aside

here. No, that's fine. I'm pretty sure that Revenge

of the Fallen made more money. It made over 400

million. Last I checked, New Moon was at 140.

Yeah, but didn't New Moon break its attendance

record? Maybe for the first weekend. Yeah, it

was at like $800 million, I thought. Titanic

is the biggest movie and it's over $600 million.

Dark Knight was over $500 million. Revenge of

the Fallen was in the top five, I thought. I

may be wrong, but it was an incredibly huge movie.

The point still stands. There was so much to

it. There was so much hype, so much buzz. People

went to see this movie in droves. People who

weren't Transformers fans, people who didn't

see the first movie, saw this movie. They're

clamoring for a third movie. Of course, they're

going to talk about a third movie. I honestly

don't really care. I'm always more interested

in what's going to happen between the movies,

which is what happened between this movie and

the movie preceding it. We had Transformers animated

in Classics 2 .0. probably the best Transformers

series ever and one of the best Transformers

sub -lines ever. So the movies can be as big

and as crappy as they want to be because there's

so much hype, so much exposure, so much attention

to Transformers. We're getting really good stuff

in the meantime and I'm really happy about that.

What would you look for in a toy line like say

the next five toy lines over the next five years?

What would you want? Like what what do you think

Hasbro will do for the next toy lines outside

of movie line? That's a really good question

Hasbro's really sort of been I hate to use the

word Scram? Not scrambling I want to say that

they've been testing the waters. Armada was a

completely different design aesthetic from Beast

Wars and Beast Machines. Beast Machines was a

different design aesthetic from Beast Wars, but

basically everything since Armada came out has

been a little bit more toward the boxy and less

toward the ball joint. They've all been ball

-jointed, but less toward the molded plastic

that we had with Beast Wars. Animated has been

even completely different from that. Animated

didn't really revolve around gimmicks like The

Last Three Lions did, where The Last Three Lions

revolved around power -linking or the keys or

minicons. really focused on a radical design

shift in the Transformers toy line. I would see

Hasbro, if we're talking five years out, we're

probably looking at two to three Transformers

lines, major lines in that point. We're probably

going to look at something like a design shift

or maybe the next line. If they are moving in

a sort of a G1 direction with the next cartoon,

the next line could probably be something like

a cross between what we got with Universe Classics

2 .0 and animated, kind of like an homage slash

design shift. I don't really see them moving

toward gimmicks again. While it was great for

the Unicron trilogy, the gimmicks sort of didn't...

They didn't really translate to sales. They sold

very well. Don't get me wrong, Transformers has

always been like a great seller, but it really

didn't have the hype. The kids really weren't...

you know going out saying oh I want this because

it power leaks you know it's not like oh it's

a zuzu pad I really want it or it's a new transformers

movie toy I really want it so I say they're probably

going to move into the direction of sort of like

trying out new designs new ways to design the

toys while also trying to more rigidly adhere

to sort of like an homage feel like they've done

in the last couple last line in the movie in

the universe 2 .0 line rather sorry you know

the the universe line I don't see why that has

to go away it's never going to go away no I know

but I'm saying weren't there rumors like I don't

know six months ago or something that universe

was but you know universe is basically gone and

they were going to do something completely new

and different I don't see why universe would

have to go away if it did because You can release

anything anything that bender. It's the longest

running transformers line period. It's been out

since like oh Two oh three, so it's been going

on six years uninterrupted And Hasbro said that

universe will return in 2010 and we'll have more

g1 homages Sort of like a classics 3 .0 at that

point. So yeah universe isn't going anywhere

They may pause it, you know while they're ramping

up the movie and ramping down animated. And while

they push the new series, there will be universe

and I don't see universe ending anytime soon.

Because like you said, they can do absolutely

anything with that line. They can release molds

of toys that didn't get released for whatever

reason. They can go back to favorite molds. They

can experiment. It's a sandbox for them. Yeah,

I think the I've seen a lot of the Beast Wars

toys, you know, and obviously, you know we're

starting beast unleashed and I think the the

only two that I would all Revise it the only

three I really want Transmetal to purple t -rex

Megatron Transpan that's transmittal one transmittal

two is the dragon transmittal one transmittal

one the Megatron the blue ape optimus He's not

the best toy in the world. If you don't like

transforming toys, you won't like him. He's okay.

He's too bulky for his own good. There are a

lot of great toys in Beast Wars, though, you

might want to look at. Since we're talking about

Universe, you might want to look at getting Razor

Claw, which is the repaint of Tigatron. The colors

aren't exactly as good, but the mold itself fixes

a few of the quirks. Transmetal 2 Megatron but

his colors are a little boring but they're better

than the brown of Razor Claw, Universe Razor

Claw. But he's a very solid toy. Basically all

of the Transmetals are great toys with the exception

of maybe Rhinox. Rat Trap is a great toy. Possibly

the best toy from all of Beast Wars is probably

Transmetal 1 Cheetor. He's one of those toys

that not only is a good transformer, he's a solid

action figure. He's poseable, he looks good,

he's well proportioned. He's a great toy. Beast

Wars has a lot of great toys. I've seen the pictures

of him. Yeah, that's the other one that I want.

Skip, Skip Metal's Ravage, though. He's a remold

of Cheetor and not the best toy in the world.

I had two of them and I got rid of both. Is there

a Beast Wars toy? I don't know, I haven't paid

that much attention to the Beast Wars line, but

is there a Beast Wars toy that is dedicated to

Ravage that was in the cartoon? Metal's Ravage

would be the one. He's the only one. There's

also Transmetal 2, Predacon Agent, which I'm

going to start rambling on about Ravage 3 Bodies

Evolution. I'm going to save you that. He is

also supposed to be... Shadow Panther and I guess

sort of Ravage as well. He's the third form of

Ravage. So yeah, Transmetal 2. Transmetal 2 Predacon

Agent and he is a repaint of Transmetal 2 Cheetor,

if I remember correctly. He's sort of a blackish

repaint. He was a Walmart exclusive. So yeah,

you could look at it that way. I had Transmetal

2 Cheetor. I did not like him. He's not a good

toy. They screwed that up so bad. Yeah, neither.

I mean, the first couple of iterations of Beast

Machines Cheetor kind of sucked the big one too.

Knight slash Cheetor is the only thing that really

is the only good Cheetor toy after Transmetal

One. Yeah, the Transmetal Two toy, I thought

there was going to be a hell of a lot more black

on him. Yeah. Because I was going off of cartoon

design from the Feral Scream episodes. And wow,

they really screwed that up. Yeah, they could

have done better there than they did. But I mean,

that's the cool thing about, you know, Transformers,

the design team is constantly learning, constantly

evolving. And because of mistakes like, you know,

Transmental 2 Cheetor, we have wins like most

of animated. Yeah. Yeah, I'm actually surprised

that they didn't include ravaging at some point

in animated either the show or the toy line Yeah,

they could have squeezed it in at least in the

cartoon is like Kind of like an Easter egg. I'm

surprised they didn't they may have and I completely

missed it I should probably grab my copy of all

spark almanac and read it a little further Yeah,

I've got one. I've looked through it. I it's

been a while since I've looked through it Yeah,

it's great. Jim Sorensen is a great guy. He's

a long time Transmurs fan. He's one of the people

that I've... I've had the chance to meet. We've

never actually crossed paths, but I've known

who he is forever. I'm going to make a point

to stop him in the hall and say hello to him.

We talk occasionally on Facebook and such, but

he's someone that I've not met that I really

want to. The almanac and I figured I would do

something nice for whatever little listeners

that we do have for this show So I bought three

copies. I bought one for myself and two to give

away And I was promoting it everywhere that I

could think of to promote it and that's on all

spark Yeah, and he um, he he caught on to it.

He emailed me about it and I said, you know If

you have any news on a volume two where we get

a lot of season three stuff, I would really enjoy

that and I'd love to interview you about it.

He said, oh, well, I just did a couple interviews.

I did an interview with Moonbase and there really

isn't anything new yet, but I'll let you know

whenever we do get the go ahead to do a volume

two. And see, when that originally came out,

I thought that it was going to be a complete

Bible for the show not just season one season

two. Oh Yeah, no, I I thought the same thing

but Season three is so rich with material if

it had been like seasons one two and three would

have been three times as thick Yeah, but that's

okay for me though cuz it's all in one place

But yeah, you're probably right Yeah, I you know,

I but I am glad that I do have it I think it's

a great resource for the show and I like how

they show in the beginning of the book the the

former title looks The title logos. I thought

that was really cool. Yeah One of my favorite

parts is the flip book in the bottom corner.

I just love flipping through that. Yeah Yeah

Do we have anything else we'd like to talk about?

I don't have anything. I appreciate you having

me on and asking me to come on. It's been fun.

Oh, yeah. Do you have anything that you'd like

to plug before I go into the official closing?

You can check us out, tfradio .net. We have an

archive, mostly going back 10 years. We're on

every week. We have two shows, Radio Free Cybertron

and New Soundwave, which is sort of a general...

sci -fi geek gaming podcast. It's 30 minutes

every week. We record it right after Radio Free

Cybertron, so we're all pissed off and surly.

So it's sort of got a different feel, but we

also do that once a week. Basically the drunk

version of RFC. Yeah, except for like two of

us absolutely don't drink and the other three

are like alcoholics and they don't drink for

that reason. So yeah, basically. Wow. Yeah. Okay.

What was that website again? Thank you for joining

us here on Toycast. There are several ways to

get in contact with us or leave feedback for

the show. First is you can visit www .geekcastradio

.com. Find all the other GCRN podcasts there,

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We hope you enjoyed this episode of Toycast and

wish you'll join us next time. Be sure to visit

www .bigbadtoystore .com for all your Transformers

toy needs and more. For now, I am TFD1Mike with

Brian Kilby saying any moral words of Optimus

Primal, that's just prime. Uh -uh, Ravage. This

key's not for you. 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! stories of pirates

and future police, of devils and bullies, and

a twist press release. Fantasy, mystery, both

are included. Comedy, action, no genre excluded.

You say to yourself, it's too good to be true,

but author Steve Saylor would not lie to you.

An audiobook so you don't have to read, and hey,

$15 is all that you need. 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. Soon it will be a new year, a new decade,

and that means a new Transformers Review podcast

from the minds that brought you the TFG1 podcast

and all things Transformers. Coming January 11th,

2010 is the Beast Unleashed podcast. This will

feature Steve Megatron, Pecan Court Michael,

and TFG1 Mike. 30 pulse -pounding discussion

-filled episodes covering both Beast Wars and

Beast Machines. This is the first ever. Beast

Wars review podcast. So unleash the beast in

you. You can find us on iTunes and the web at

www .geekcastradio .com. The TFG1 podcast has

24 action packed discussion episodes on the original

Transformers cartoon. So if you're a fan of the

80s 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. Toycast is all new as we have

transformed and transcended from just being Transformers

Toycast into Toycast. We'll talk about any toy

line from any generation, even Rock 'em, Sock

'em, Robots. You can find us on iTunes and the

web at www .geekcastradio .com. Start being a

kid again and keep collecting those toys. Mu

ha ha ha ha.