Transformers Collecting, McDonald’s Blitzwing, Dragstrip, and Robot Heroes

You're listening to the GeekCast Radio Network

of Podcasts. Cliffjumper, commence countdown.

Five, four, three... Hello and welcome to the

35th episode of Toycast sponsored by BigBadToyStore

.com where you can save from 20 to 90 % on over

1 ,000 items. I am your host TF2 and Mike and

joining me is General Techno, hello. Hello there.

And the goddamn Prono Man. Hey, hey, hey. How

are you guys? Good. I'm always great. I so should

have been recording that conversation you guys

are just having because Jesus Christ that went

on forever. Get me talking about TS, you're in

for trouble. Since we have... Make it double.

I just remembered there has been something I've

been wanting to call you out on for a while now.

When we were originally talking about the Bumblebee

mold for Animated, you said that the Fugitive

Waspinator wasn't going to be... it's pretty

much gang molding and they're going to use all

the wrong... all the same stuff. Yeah. They've

customized him. His missiles are purple, his

eyes are purple, so as soon as he comes out,

I'm getting what I want out of that figure. That's

still gang -molded though, they just changed

the color of the clear plastic from blue to purple,

that's all. Yeah, that's it. And you said that

they wouldn't do that though, they wouldn't change

the color. No, he was talking about the head

sculpt, I think. Yeah, the head sculpt I was

talking about. Well, the head sculpt, I mean,

they can change his face though. It's still gonna

be the Bumblebee head. But, I don't know, maybe

they'll put a bigger chin on him. I don't know.

No, they'll just give the fiction explanation

they said at BotCon where it's like Waspinator

when he's disguising himself as Bumblebee or

something. Yeah, where they made where he was

Bumblebee for an episode. True. So it is 2010.

Ferderman, we haven't talked to you yet and Techno

didn't really get a whole lot of TF stuff for

Christmas. What'd you get? TF -related? almost

nothing a lot of it was more like I got burning

fallen I think that's the only thing that comes

to mind that was tf related I thought you know

what the thing is with me is that with Christmas

I always tell all my friends my loved ones don't

buy me anything because every day for me is Christmas

every day I come home and there's a package you

know in the mail so it's very difficult to buy

stuff for me so what did I did get for Christmas

nothing toy related it was tons of DVDs and video

games It was like, oh, I heard you really wanted

the Harvey Birdman box set. So I was like, yeah,

I did, actually. So here you go. Oh, hey, I heard

you like Ninja Turtles, so here's the movie box

set. Oh, hey, thanks. That's pretty much what

transpired. Because I'm not a big DVD purchasing

kind of person. I only buy stuff I really, really,

really want. And then everything else, like YouTube

slash download. If people want to buy me presents,

just find out that series that I've been YouTubing

and give me the disc version of it. That's pretty

much what ended up happening. I just got a whole

bunch of DVDs and video games. I got Legends

of Zelda Spirit Tracks for Nintendo DS. It was

really thin. Look, I got tons of Transformers

in the month of December. None of them were the

intention of it being Santa Claus or whatever.

I got Freeway Jazz on the 26th. It wasn't Boxing

Day related, it wasn't Christmas related, it's

just, hey, he was there, you know? And I picked

him up. I am, for me, well, sorry to interrupt

you, Techno, but for me, this show will still

go on. I don't know exactly how often it will,

because for me, at this point, until... I see

more of the new Transformers toy line. I may

actually stop buying Transformers, unless it's

something I don't have that I want. Say, like,

that I don't have Classics Optimus Prime, so

I may try to find one of those. But, like, I'm

pretty much moving into other toy avenues. I've

been watching a lot of That New Toy Smell on

YouTube, and they are huge fans. I know at least

one of them is Pixel Dan of the Masters of the

Universe line. And I've been seeing a lot of

those toys, and they look awesome. Well, then.

What? What's wrong with doing some non -TF stuff?

I mean, if you get out of collecting Transformers,

I kind of have to say, congratulations. Well,

you know, I'm not as invested as, say, Proto

Man is. I mean, hell. Well, if there's one thing

people have to realize is that while I have an

insanely huge Transformer collection, I have

an insanely huge collection of other toy -related

merchandise also. I challenge anyone to prove

to me otherwise that I have the biggest collection

of Proto Man action figures from the Mega Man

line. I believe that I have easily the best collection

of Boss Master action figure toys ever. Boss

Master was a niche cartoon during the 90s created

by Abby Everett. I collect everything. It's just

that Transformers has always been my primary

focus. So, you know, flexibility. With me, outside

of a few figures that I don't have, like I said,

that classics Optimus Prime and some of the Shadow

Commander and the City Commander and all that

stuff. A few future animated toys to come, if

you know what I mean. Yeah, that's kind of what

I'm waiting on. Yeah, Emmet, Hasbro, release

them sons of bitches already. Like I said, while

I'm not as invested in it as you, I pretty much

have what I want from the collecting. Am I going

to completely stop collecting Transformers? No.

But as of right now, every time I go to Walmart...

Well, right now we're at the worst possible time.

We're right after Christmas, so Walmart's empty.

We have a dry spell of fiction because we don't

even know what's coming. That's the worst part.

It's not even a matter of, oh, something's coming

out, we've got to get hyped for it. We don't

even know what's coming. We have vague ideas

and fan assumptions, but we don't know. We haven't

seen a prototype, a test shot, nothing, a banner.

Even when we had that horrible poster of animated

we got at first, we don't even have that much.

We have absolutely nothing. Right now, all the

fans are doing are sitting there and twiddling

their thumbs. And the fans that are less dedicated,

well, they have all of the rights to go on and

go buy yourself up some DCU or Marvel Universe

figures or whatever the hell you want to buy.

Right, but the only stuff we know we're getting

is Universe because we've seen a few of those

prototypes. And Hasbro has said this a lot. Well,

I mean, in my case, I am invested in Transformers

collecting. I'm not going to say that I'm not.

It's pretty much the number one thing I collect.

When I go to Walmart and Target, even when we

are in this dry spell, that's the first thing

I look for is, hey, are there any newer, different

Transformers toys that they may have restocked

or have in stock or are shell formers or whatever

that I don't have? I don't look at the Star Wars

figures. I don't fucking look at the G .I. Joe

movie figures. I haven't even really looked for

for Masters of the Youth yet, only because I

haven't been to Walmart or Target recently since

after Christmas. I just haven't gone. My birthday

is coming up next month. I know I want to go

to Toys R Us to see if I can find more Mighty

Mugs. Right now, the Mighty Mugs are my obsession.

I have officially gotten every single TF Mighty

Mug. I have recently been watching a series on

YouTube called Superhero... What is it? superhero

mugs Redhead Henry is the the guy that does that

and it's pretty much all of the Marvel Mighty

mugs with a few like sporadically like there

was one episode where Wolverine and Hulk and

Spider -Man decide to steal the the guy's car

Right as they're trying right before they're

going to drive off in the car Some odd reason

I don't know if I don't know if Redhead Henry

has The Optimus Prime Mighty Mug, but right before

they drive off, the Optimus Prime Mighty Mug

shows up in the windshield. Roll out! It's a

really cool series. It's actually gotten me into

buying the Marvel Mugs. I've actually got coming

Human Torch, Hulk, and the yellow spandexed Wolverine.

So Toycast will not be going away we may cut

back a little bit on episodes only because I

Have to focus on the other shows that geek cast

radio is is going to be producing next week Or

actually probably after this after this airs.

I'm not sure when I'm going to air this episode

But as of this recording next Monday the 11th

of January the beast unleashed podcast will premiere

with myself Steve Megatron and Michael Wilson

We are going to be looking at Beast Wars and

Beast Machines cartoons, so That's one thing.

I've also got a Justice League podcast coming

up in February So yeah, I'm pretty busy with

the whole podcasting thing and with the Transformers

toys kind of you know as for the man said kind

of being in a dry spell right now i get to save

money first so what's been going on with you

take no since we last talked to you well i mean

uh... not much i mean uh... schools to start

up me again so and the first few months uh...

from now i guess i'll be done and then out in

the working world and stuff for good, but I mean

not much, I mean I got back from vacation, I

think I talked about that in the last Toycast

we recorded, but I did actually get one TF thing,

I got like a pillow, just like a small throw

pillow sort of thing. I think so. It was like

an Optimus Prime Bumblebee one or something like

that. Just my parents found it while they were

over in London and decided to just get it for

me for something. For a quick gift, so. And I

got some sheet music for piano, so that was nice

too. I mean, yeah, not much else is really new.

I mean, I've got a few things on the way as well,

just in terms of some toys coming and... Hopefully

you'll get a chance to talk about them because

I don't think that they've been talked about

yet, but yeah Just with me expanding the show

just to be Toycast and not specifically Transformers

Toycast and we can talk about any toys and I

may actually just pull myself back until I get

a lot more of the Marvel Mighty Mugs and I can

just kind of mention them I'm I may just pull

myself back to be kind of like the host or the

Wrangler and just like right go at it with your

own toys Because like I said this year I have

I have to save money this year. I am not going

to be in the financial shithole that I was in

last year. So if I see something on BBTS or HTS

that isn't that costly, I will get it. But again,

I have to save money this year. Is there any

news that we want to bring up before we get into

the toy discussion? Leader Bumblebee? Whatever.

I think it's been talked to to do to death, you

know? Like, after Human Alliance Bumblebee, do

we really need another one? Exactly, yeah. Do

we really need a Bumblebee that's going to be

even out to scale, even with their own leader

class figures? There's only one, there's one

silver lining though to scale that people have

pointed out. He's likely going to be in scale

with people's three and three quarter inch figures,

which means we can get stuff like, say, Deadpool

using Bumblebee to pick up dates. And if the

date goes wrong, then he just hops out of the

car and does Bumblebee Transform. Anyone have

to see her again? I can't say that that has crossed

my mind. But it's in character for Deadpool to

do something like that. Or you can just sit in

the car and just use this healing pack to get

better. You know, of course, we finally have

the BotCon announcement of where it's going to

be and when it's going to be. Question, Mr. TFCon

over there, did that... Did you guys... We knew

way in advance, that's all I'm going to say.

Okay, so that did affect you where you put it.

Yes, I don't want to I'm just gonna say we knew

way in advance fine That's fine We're in talks

with mr. Savage and and Pete and the crew so

Pete Sinclair, so it all depends on For me it

depends on the set because I'm I'm a person that's

never been So for me, I want the full experience.

I want to be able to get, you know, each panelist,

whatever, like, voice actor, you know, whatever,

and just have the full experience. And monetarily,

that's just not feasible for me. You know, I've

heard people say you can go for under $200 or

whatever, but, you know, I want the full experience.

Now, if it's like, say, my second or third time

going, yeah, sure, I can go for under 200 bucks,

but since I've never been, I did the number crunching

for most Canadians to give them an idea if they

wanted to go to BotCon. If you go under a Primus

package, you're pretty much going to spend about

$700. And not to mention, and this is a very

key point, this is Disney World. If Pasadena

last year was any indication, the Saturday night

party, which has been a tradition with BotCon

for years, if Pasadena Saturday night party with

Universal Studios, What do you think the party

is going to be this year? Oh, yeah. You know,

so buh -bye your money, you know, like you, I'm

going, I already, like I said, I'm going into

BotCon this year, easily spending $2 ,000, American,

no problem. I know it because I know when I went

in 2008, I spent $2 ,000 and that was like in

Cincinnati. That wasn't anywhere special. And,

you know, so I know that I'm easily minimum,

minimum. blowing $2 ,000. Oh yeah, that's a big

deterrent for me for BotCon simply because of

the fact that when you take into account airfare

and hotel and everything and convention figures,

it gets to a ridiculous amount to spend on a

convention. Just to airfare, arriving at the

convention, hotel, and registration, and registration

and getting every single figure including the

free and the souvenir set, $700. That's the final

number. Half of my TFCon budget was stuff I bought

at the convention, I think. Well, let's put it

this way. TFCon was a lot more affordable for

you, and how much did you spend there? Yeah,

I spent a few hundred bucks. There you go. Now,

BotCon is not affordable for you, and you're

already spending $700 before even hitting the

dealer room. Half of the stuff I bought at TFCon

was fan kits, stuff that wasn't even straight

off Hasbro stuff. I bought a lot of artwork and

fan kits and stuff. Not to mention, in 2008 and

2009, Hasbro has already shown their dislike

for that kind of stuff being seen in the deal

room at BotCon. In 2008, I remember TF Source,

which is a very famous TF website. They had a

buttload of bootlegs and world's smallest dyno

robots. All their little third party stuff, City

Commander, wasn't out yet at the time. After

a panel that BotCon had, we all returned to the

deal room and half of TF Sources inventory was

missing. That inventory that was missing? All

the bootleg stuff. Asbro is really not happy

about that. In 2009, it was even more scarce.

People were able to kind of have it at the beginning

of the dealer room, and then they had to put

it away before pretty much the thugs started

walking around and noticing, hey, that's not

a real shockwave. Well, I hope TFCon never goes

that way with the third -party fan kits and stuff,

because knock -offs was one thing. That's a separate

thing. third -party stuff like say City Commander

and stuff because like and the quintessence that

were done stuff cuz that's the type of stuff

that I like get go to TFCon to get. You have

to realize something. TFCon as our exclusive

we sold Powered Commander which is a third -party

thing and on top of that we had Hasbro Canada

come every year. Hasbro Canada is a cool bunch

of guys and if you get the thumbs up from them

while doing this then pretty much everything's

fair game. Sure, it's not Aaron Archer himself

showing up and saying, yeah, it's cool, but as

long as we've got them there saying it's okay,

it's fine. It's on Canadian soil. We get away

with it. Heck, the guy from Hasbro Canada who's

done presentations the last couple of years seems

like a pretty cool guy. Oh, yeah. Hasbro Canada

is a really cool bunch of guys. I think the difference

between them and Hasbro America is them, it's

like, here's the new toys for next year. Hey,

you want to play with them? At least with BotCon,

it's like, here's the new toys for next year.

Yeah, you can only breathe on the glass. Yeah,

and then stuff like Cowlick. Right after the

panel last year, there were a whole bunch of

us that went up to him and were talking to him

about thoughts and such. Whether if he was frustrated

and not about trying to get on, he didn't show.

seemed like he was willing to listen and take

feedback back with them or something. And I think

the best part of TFCon with the Hasbro Canada

staff was after they were done their display,

they gave away a few of the leader class toys

that weren't going to be out for months. So,

Bulkhead, Onslaught, and Megatron were given

away for free to some lucky volunteers at the

convention. And let me tell you something, Everyone

was green with envy and you get a leader class

toy. That's like six months in advance from Hasbro,

Canada So that that's not like stuff. That's

not like stolen Chinese, right? You know, that's

like here kid, you know from the store See for

me like, you know, you were saying like with

the bootleg stuff at BotCon. I'm glad that Hasbro

Chomps down on that now. I need to I am I especially

like that because one day I'm gonna go back and

I'm gonna try to Like complete my iron -high

g1 one day I'm gonna go back and try to find

that extra gun for jazz But I don't want to have

to go on to eBay in this jungle of bootlegs Yeah,

you know or that gun I'm buying of jazz might

not even be the real one, you know, right exactly

so The sooner the better. I really don't endorse

bootlegs. I endorse wacky bootlegs. I don't mind

a bootleg that's like purple -green and like

Christmas colors and stuff, but the replica bootlegs

I'm 100 % against. I don't care if you couldn't

afford the real deal. It doesn't make a difference.

It's not good for Hasbro. It's not good for the

collectors. It only benefits the few people who

don't want to pay what the toy is worth. And

in all honesty, no offense to the listeners,

but you're just being cheap, you know? Well,

I mean, all right, you know, would you rather

have... I mean, the reissues exist for that reason,

too. Exactly. Well, I mean, reissues are official,

though. I mean, reissues... Oh, no, no, reissues

are fine, but I'm saying the knockoff bootlegs

that claim to be the one... Yeah, there is. Reissues,

at least, they make an effort to make an accessory

a little different from the original. They put

a hole in a certain part of the gun or something.

There's always a way to differentiate the two.

I've done comparisons with Blue Streak from his

Japanese release, which was his anime version

that I have, compared to the original G1. I've

done comparisons with Hot Rod from his Japanese

reissue release to his Rodimus Major American

reissue release to the original G1 toy. And there's

differences in the stickers. There's always ways

to tell, at least. They make the effort where

it's a reissue, but they make it just different

enough so you know that it is one. Where I don't

like that these replica bootlegs, I mean, they

just released one of Devastator that is mind

bogglingly impossible to tell the difference.

Now, I'm grateful that I own a complete 100 %

Devastator G1. But for anyone that's now going

out there trying to get a real one, I feel sorry

for them because someone's going to be like,

hey, here's a loose Devastator from my childhood.

It's in perfect condition. Yeah, sure it is.

OK. You know, they just took it out of the packaging

of the bootleg. And now they're selling it as

a loose G1 Devastator. And the poor guys, you

know, a whole bunch of people are going to fight

over it on eBay. It's going to get up to a hundred

plus dollars and someone's going to get screwed.

I don't like that. I really don't because that's

the biggest evil that's coming with all of these

reissues is that people are taking a real G1

Jazz and then buying the bootleg and then just

sticking him with all the accessories and now

he's complete. You know and then selling it saying

it's a complete original G1 jazz. I don't appreciate

that. That's not cool. Yeah I mean with I mean

with some of the knockoffs like say some of the

stuff back to that site ko toy sells I mean like

take those recent seeker knockoffs that just

showed up today I mean the thing with those is

you can tell their knockoffs because like there's

some clear differences which make it really discernible

and I can even see Reasons that people would

want some of those like I can see clear slipstream

kitbash since there's blue cockpit. Oh Granted

yes There is little differences, but the bigger

concern is the accessories because especially

using the secret jets as a very good example

Landing gears fists missiles longer missiles,

you know tons of accessories and parts formers

You know go on with the with the secret jets

Now you take some, you know, guys who want to

make some easy money, they take, you know, secret

jets especially, you find tons of them, the pieces

missing. Well, I was talking the classic jets

that we saw the knockoffs for, so. Oh, those,

yeah. See, that's okay, because you have to,

you know, that's what I call wacky. Those are

different. Yeah, those are wacky blue legs. I

don't mind wacky blue legs. They're not trying

to be something they're not, you know. They're

trying to be the wacky Ingrish. You know, sky

champion diaper, you know, crazy bootleg. I love

those. Those I support because, you know, whatever.

They're not hurting nobody, really. They're low

quality to begin with, so it's not like it's

trying to make Hasbro lose money. Anyone that's

going to buy that instead of buying the original

figure is going to learn the difference. Oh,

yeah. Well, before we get into the toy discussion,

we're going to take a break and we'll be right

back. And it's your duty to serve the great and

glorious Megatron. Hello, we are back. And Proto

Man, you are up first, sir. What are you going

to be talking about? Well, since we're all going

to be doing some wacky stuff here and there,

the toy I'm going to be talking about today is

McDonald's 2008 France Edition Blitzwing. I know

that's a mouthful right there. The 2008 animated

Blitzwing was a exclusive McDonald's toy that

was available only in France. While we in America,

pretty much we got the eight figures. We got

Ratchet, Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, Megatron,

Lugnut, who am I forgetting? Help me out, Techno.

Who'd I forget? Starscream, Prime, Bumblebee,

Ratchet, Lugnut, and Megatron. Yeah, there you

go. I got them all. Perfect. We got that set,

but we didn't get a Blitzwing. And when the set

got released later in the year in France, they

reduced the set to only four figures, that being

Optimus Megatron, Starscream, and Blitzwing.

And everyone was kind of like, whoa, what's this

new mold? And so this new mold is Quite interesting

to the sense where it almost doesn't even belong

with the others because it's a completely different

make, mold, and quality. It's also a lot more

complex than the others, too. It's very weird.

Also, there's little telltale differences. Number

one, I'll just start and explain in vehicle mode.

Number one, even though it's Blitzwing, a triple

changer, it only turns into the tank. I mean,

it's McDonald's. We can't expect perfection here.

But in tank mode, it does a very good job of

selling it. It's not like your typical where

it looks good in one mode but not in the other

because of its limited budget. It actually does

an amazing job of hiding everything that is the

robot part. What's unique to it also is that

on both sides of the tank treads it has these

big Transformers animated logos that are sculpted

into it which is not seen on any of the other

McDonald's toys which I thought was unique again

because it's probably just the one shot thing

that was made for France. Transformation is,

I wouldn't say complex because that would be

too big a word to say, but it's a lot more...

intuitive than most McDonald's toys. I would

say it's beyond an advanced micro master. I would

say it's like a scout. You have to pull the legs

out. You have to pull out the toes. You have

to rotate the arms. Then you have to rotate the

shoulder pads. Even his shoulder pads are on

a separate articulation. And then you have to

pop his head up. 99 .9 % of McDonald's toys are

literally stand it up and then pop the head out.

This was a big change. He has articulation in

the arms, he has articulation in the legs, and

he has articulation on the toes so he could lean

forward and back. The face that they used for

Blitzwing is the calm one, if you want, because

you have Arnold Schwarzenegger Austrian, you

have crazy Jack Skellington, and then you got

calm Colonel Clink, if you will. I don't even

know what to say. So, it's that one. It's the

calm one that they go with. Paint bias. Again,

unexpected extra amount of paint that was not

necessary. Most figures, they usually have about

three or four different color paint applications.

They actually went for red for the eyes. They

went for black. They painted a separate piece,

just painted black for the fist. They went for

the purple for the overall. It's a lot of effort

for considering a McDonald's toy, but I think

it's a very isolated situation. I remember when

Energon had a line of McDonald's toys, but it

was only in the UK and Europe, those ones were

also very well painted, very well engineered,

and they came with lights and actions and sound

effects. So I think that maybe in Europe, There's

their big dolls toys kind of go through a different

process of quality control or when something

is exclusive to their They're able to go a little

more all out. I think I guess maybe because also

They just poured it over the American toys and

then since it was you know four months later

They had all this time to engineer one Exclusive

figure so they really put it all into blitzwing,

but either way it worked It worked. It was good

Yeah, I mean, just looking at a picture of him,

he looks pretty good. How does he compare to

the classic Beast Machine from McDonald's figures?

Well, one thing, he's a lot taller than him,

too. That's another thing I wanted to point out.

He's like a little bit taller than a scout. When

you put this figure with your other animated

figures from the McDonald's line, he a little

bit sticks out because it's like, huh. He's a

little better painted, and he's a little taller,

and he's a little more nicer looking. It's kind

of weird. Where, at least with the Beast Machines

ones, I got to give that props because that was

a great McDonald's toy line. It did what even

the main line couldn't do, which is be show accurate.

The Beast Machines ones are a lot smaller, but

they have just as much paint applications. Also,

the Beast Machines one had a lot of translucent

plastics, which I love me the translucent plastic.

So you don't really see that as much anymore.

And it just worked with Beast Machines lines,

especially with the organic look. But this figure

is amazing. The whole animated McDonald's line

has been really hit or miss. Like, for every

Optimus Prime, you know, Starscream was kind

of, eh. Starscream wasn't that great. Megatron

wasn't too bad, but it's just he didn't have

any articulation at all. He just went from a

kind of a helicopter to a statue that didn't

move at all. And Starscream just had a, like,

you know, a robot mode that wasn't that great

to a jet mode that didn't really look like a

jet that couldn't hide his head. You know, like...

Some of them were good, some of them were not

that good, but at least Blitzwing, he's flawless.

He's easily the best of the whole bunch. I'm

not just saying that because he's a really tough

figure to get. They put a lot of effort into

this one figure and they put a lot of paint,

a lot of moving. It's a lot of pieces that were

put into this toy. I guess you could count on

one hand how many pieces are put into a MicroMaster

or a MiniCon or a McDonald's toy. And this one

has a lot more pieces than it normally does.

Cool. So yeah, I heavily suggest... You can find

him on eBay. I know once in a while he does pop

up and he goes between like, you know, $10 and

$15, which I guess for a lot of people is expensive

for a McDonald's toy. But I mean, hey, if you

like the blitz thing, you know, or... If you

just want to, like, get something that's an interesting

oddity from, you know, outside of the box Transformer

figures, he's definitely worth picking up. Yeah,

well, Blitzwing can kiss my ass, because the

animated version, the regular animated version,

literally ripped my damn fingernail off. Really?

Yes. I talked about that. I believe it was episode

32 of Toy Cat. Yeah, Blitzwing definitely looks

a lot better than my McDonald's McDonald's McDonald's

McDonald's McDonald's McDonald's McDonald's McDonald's

McDonald's McDonald's McDonald's McDonald's McDonald's

McDonald's McDonald's McDonald's McDonald's McDonald's

McDonald's McDonald's McDonald's McDonald's McDonald's

McDonald's McDonald's McDonald's McDonald's McDonald's

McDonald's McDonald's McDonald's McDonald's McDonald's

McDonald's McDonald's McDonald's McDonald's McDonald's

McDonald's McDonald's McDonald's McDonald's McDonald's

McDonald's McDonald's McDonald's McDonald's McDonald's

McDonald's McDonald's McDonald's McDonald's McDonald's

McDonald's McDonald's McDonald's McDonald's McDonald's

McDonald's McDonald's McDonald's McDonald's McDonald's

McDonald Which I got purely for lug nut completionism

There you go cool Techno you're up next. What

are you gonna be talking about? Okay? I'm gonna

be talking about a figure that I guess it came

out earlier in that 2009 It was that I'm gonna

be talking about universe drag strip now I'm

no pro to man But I'll try and give a bit of

history from what I can recall with a figure

of the youth figure showed up out of the blue

on a Hasbro toy shop one day where it was where

it was four figures that were repaints of existing

molds. There was Overkill from Grimlock, Dragstrip

from Mirage, and repaints of the two -pack Prime

and Megatron figures. They came in individual

boxes, which were a lot more like offerings you

would see from Takara Tomy just in how they were

packaged. Like, it was very nice packaging. Yeah,

yeah, great boxes. And then they went on and

said... These were designed for the Asian market.

They haven't been released yet. We decided to

put them up on Hasbro Toy Shop for people. They

sold rather quickly and rather well. At least

a few of them did, like Drake. And the one that

was probably in the greatest demand of them all

was Drag Strip. It's a repaint of the Mirage

that's a homage to the Stunticon. I got one a

few weeks before Christmas, I guess, in another

order where I was ordering some stuff from Automaton

toys, and noticed that they still had some drag

strips there. So I got him while I was at it,

and he's a pretty neat figure, really. I mean,

as far as the repaint goes, they packaged the

guys in robot mode, first of all, which was pretty

nice. And in robot mode, he's got a very good

amount of paint apps. He's got the same type

of paint as a G1 drag strip on the head, with

the purple helmet and the blue face and red eyes.

The whole helmet isn't painted, mind you. The

back is yellow plastic, but it still looks pretty

good. Wasn't his original paint scheme, wasn't

that purple, yellow, and black, or was it blue?

He had a blue on his face for drag strip. Yeah,

it was blue. Oh wait, I'm confused. I'm talking

about the... For drag strip or mush? No, Dragstrip.

I'm trying to think of what his original G1 color

scheme was. It was mostly yellow, wasn't it?

Yeah. Well, in the cartoon it was yellow. He

was mostly yellow, and the only purple that was

actually on the toy was the gun and his head.

And of course, if you want to count also the

extra connection pieces for the Scramble City

gimmick. But aside from that, it was primarily

yellow. That's what I thought. Yeah. Still, his

paint scheme is pretty well done. I mean, he's

got a bit of other purple on his crotch piece.

He's got those painted purple, but he's predominantly

yellow. And most of his paint is a highlight.

He's not too toned or anything. He's got some

black plastic on the forearms and the hands,

but most of it is red detailing here and there.

It's fairly evocative of the original toy the

way they detailed it up in robot mode and He

really looks good. The classics mirage mold is

a very good mold. It's very poseable You can

get a lot of really good really cool looking

poses out of it. It's sleek and befits a race

car and He's got the same weapon and he's got

a nice prominent decepticon symbol on his chest

In all his all mode. However, I have to admit

it's Not quite up to snuff with a classic Mirage.

The alt mode for a universe flagship is actually

a bit bland because the fact that he's got so

much yellow plastic on him that and Since most

of his paint isn't highlights. It's a very yellow

vehicle mode with a bit of red here and there

So, I mean he looks great in robot mode and he

was clearly designed to be displayed in robot

mode just based off of the paint apps and the

fact they packaged in there, but his old mode

is a bit lacking in terms of paint apps. It looks

like the original, it looks like a race car,

it works well for him, but it's a bit bland to

be perfectly honest. You know, I've only, I've

never, I mean I'm sure I can go on the TFWiki

and see an image of the original G1 drag strip

toy, but I never really liked him from the cartoon.

I don't know, I just didn't like his design at

all whatsoever. Well, the thing about Dragstrip,

because I'm a formula driver, so I have a special

place in my heart for Dragstrip and the character,

and the Mirage Mogul. A lot of people don't notice

this, but he's an F1 car, but he's a 6th wheeled

F1 car. It was the company Tyrell at the time,

during the F1 of, I believe it was the world

championship of 82. It was one of the first cars

to ever be like this and it was amazing at cornering

as a result because it had six wheels and it

used great downforce because the air would pass

over the tires. this design became so popular

that I guess it somehow trickled into the Transformers

designers' minds and they're like, well, you

know, if we're going to have an F1 car that's

a Decepticon, he should be someone that's a little

different than the Mirage that came before, you

know? So I think it's cool that they went that

route for an F1 car, considering that later on

we would get other characters like Slapdash,

aka Road King, and Barricade down the line who

were other F1 cars and they just were not as

unique as, you know, As drag strip and so I agree

I really liked it that when they made this universe

Repaint because number one as techno said before

the the classics mirage mold is Amazing for articulation

He might be skinny to some people, but I think

it's at it's easily one of the best classics

figures Especially in the deluxe class Yeah,

I just looked at the pictures that the techno

put in the Skype window I like the universe updating.

I don't want to do one toy Well, the G1 toy is

a peghead. Well, it's a G1 toy. I mean, let's

be honest. But I mean, you know, there are some

G1 toys to me that look awesome, and there are

some that just look horrendous. Michael Wilson

and I had done one when we were talking, I don't

know, it was a couple episodes ago where we talked

about, I talked about Mighty Mugs Jazz and he

talked about G1 Jazz. And I really like the way

G1 Jazz looks. and a lot of other jazz molds

as well, but the drag strip, the G1 drag strip,

looks like somebody pissed all over the car.

Yeah, it's an odd form of yellow. Another comment

that's just on the side on a universe drag strip

is that going off of the Artin Transformers 2,

as in the ongoing right now, it appears Don Figueroa

based drag strips design off this figure. Because

there's a lot of telltales, like the wheel on

the back and stuff. It looks like he definitely

based it off the figure, which isn't a bad thing

because it's a great color scheme in robot mode.

It looks really good on the shelf. I display

him next to my overkill, who is the other one

from the universe from that line that I have.

And they both look pretty good together. I mean

I've seen a lot of the universe figures both

in stores and images of them and while I do like

that drag strip I just pretty much the only universe

figure that I absolutely love is Cyclonus. Everybody

can say how great Cyclonus is, which he is, but

there are just some of the other ones I just

don't care for. You and I, Techno, talked about

Cheetor last episode. Oh, that's a disaster that

figure. That's a bad example. The robot mode

is a disaster. Beast mode is pretty good. Yeah,

Beast mode is pretty good. The biggest complaint

with the original Cheetor was that he was too

bulky to be a cheetah. Yeah, I mentioned that.

And now it's the other way around. So now they

managed to get the streamlined cheetah at the

sacrifice of a good robot mode. What I did was,

I didn't tell you at Techno, what I did was after

I got him to MI into robot mode, all I did was,

and I don't know if you saw the twit pic I posted

last week sometime, or whatever it was after

we recorded that episode of Toycast, I took Cheetor

in robot mode and I now have him riding Ravage.

So it's Methkitty riding the Deathkitty. Oh,

boy. Do you have anything else to say about,

uh, Dragstrip? No, I think I covered pretty much

everything about him. I mean, he's a neat figure.

He goes for a bit, but I would definitely recommend

him if you can find him for a good price. I think

that the Mirage... The only other... I've got

Mirage and I've got him. I don't have a hanky

Mirage, and the only other real... The deco that

I'm interested in getting my hands on at some

point is the Fracture redeco because of the fact

that that one looks really nice with the black

and red and white. It does, it really does. Again,

this mold, a lot of ways with me, it can't do

any wrong. It's yet to do any wrong. I guess

I will go last, and I am going to be talking

about a Christmas present I actually bought myself.

You know, I've told this story already, but my

local Kmart, other than Revenge of the Fallen

stuff, they have crap for Transformers. But I

was able to find G1, Robot Heroes, the RC, and

Frenzy Tubac. So I will be talking about both

of those because they're extremely small. I would

dare say that this is the only true G1 version

of RC outside of the animated homage, which has

yet to be released. Well, I could argue that,

but that's fine. Go ahead and argue it. American

release, we have the Heroes of Cybertron release

of RC. Japanese releases, we have multiple G1

statuettes of RC that range between a MC Axis

model kit, the PVC line, gave us two versions

of it clear and pewter and in color, came with

Daniel. It came, let's see, we have statues that

were done by hard heroes and then later on by

diamond. Right, but I'm not counting statues.

I mean, I know that these figures are meant to

be statuesque, but I'm just saying as far as,

I mean, hell, you could even almost count this

robot heroes one as a world's smallest, I guess.

But I mean, it's just, I haven't, you know, looked

at a lot of the other ones, so... And, you know,

I count, you know, statues and stuff in a completely

different... I mean, I understand where you're

coming from, Proto Man, don't get me wrong, but...

Eh, that's cool. It's my fault. Oh, your damn

fault. Let's see, um... You know, I didn't, I

mean, I realized that she had postability in

her arms. Her arms can go 360, both of them,

so it kind of, you know, you can make her look

like she's running or she's shooting behind her

head. I didn't realize actually when I first

got her that her head can go 360, which is kind

of weird, but overall I like it. I think she

is running across a, looks like a piece of energon,

actually. In the right light, part of the rock

looks like a piece of kryptonite, so they're

mixing Superman with Transformers. It looks like

she's walking across, like... My interpretation

of what it was when I saw it, even though it

makes no sense, the episode Fire in the Sky,

okay? They found Jetfire and the ice, but they

also found him with that green crystal. Okay.

Remember? Now, of course, what the hell is RC

doing there? Obviously, that doesn't make any

sense, but that's the connection I make. Yeah,

I mean, I can see that, but I don't know, if

you just angle it in the right light, it almost

looks like aqua kryptonite to me. I guess so.

I wonder what kind of powers that would have

on Superman. There's so many other kryptonites.

The one that came with him or with her was Frenzy.

Again, Frenzy is red, Rumble is purple. That's

my opinion. Actually... Tough. What? I just said

tough. That's not what all the evidence other

than the G1 cartoons in the US suggests. That's

what I... I'm not getting into it. Yeah, I don't

want to get into it either. I'm just saying.

I'll sit here quietly. This one actually doesn't

look red, doesn't look purple on him. The only

thing that's actually purple on this is the Decepticon

symbol. He is actually a maroon color as far

as his arms and part of his legs. He's also yellow

and black. And he does have like a weird looking

grin on his face. Again, his head as well can

go 360. I wasn't sure if his pile drivers could

go 360. They can, kind of, but because of the

way he's standing, his leg gets in the way. And

at first when I was going to move one of them,

I thought I was going to break it off because

it was so tight. I didn't expect these things.

These are the first robot heroes that I've ever

owned. Oh really, okay. It's something that I'm

coming in late to. So that goes back to what

I was saying earlier in the beginning of this

episode where my collecting for Transformers

until we see new stuff is pretty much done. However,

I can go back and say, oh yeah, well I'd like

to get a lot of the robot heroes, but that's

down the line. I need to save this year. But

overall I like these guys. I think they're really

cool. I'd like to get some of the other ones

I Again RC and frenzy are the only ones that

I have so My birthday is February 9th if anyone

wants to get them for me intense nudge nudge

So yeah overall they are really cool. They're

not really well with frenzy you can put them

in in multiple poses for his pile drivers, but

they're pretty much stationary for the most part.

I like them overall. They're pretty cool. I don't

know. That's pretty much all I have to say about

them. I like the line. I like its cutesiness

to it. I think, Mike, you would have really appreciated

them. When they first debuted, they debuted with

G1. Yeah. And that's when they had all the heavy

hitter characters, like in the first two waves.

And I think you would really appreciate those,

because I hate to say this, but you actually

started in a very bad spot. Because R .C. is

a bad example of the robot hero line, because

they usually don't in general, they're not as,

how do I put it, they're not as stoic. They're

not as, like R .C., she's something that, you

know, she's articulated, but there's not much

you could do with her. because she has that platform

foot there, you know what I mean? Where you'll

see, like, if you've had the Optimus Prime or

the Hot Rod or the Ultra Magnus repaints, they're

more action -figury, I guess is the best way

to put it. Yeah, no, I mean, I understand that,

but again, you've got to realize, like I said,

my local Kmart, which I don't go to very often,

they suck when it comes to camping. Myself, I'm

kind of just made that a robot heroes is apparently

going to be ending soon simply because I mean

even with revenge of the fallen I ended up getting

the whole bunch of robot heroes and that was

a lot of that was actually because I got that

a two -pack with the fall with the fallen in

it and I needed some more guys in order to go

with it and that two -pack and that box set fallen

is awesome Yes, it is. And it's the biggest robot

hero to date at the moment. It's a cute Fallen.

I mean, you can't go wrong with that. I can't

wait for the Devastator and Demolisher sets to

show up. See, for me, again, it goes back to

no Revenge of the Fallen toys. That's just me.

But the G1 ones, I would love to find the Beast

Wars ones. I would love to find those as well,

because I know they're... Well, if you did find

RC, in the same wave that she was in was the

Cheetor Black Arachnia, to my knowledge. That

was the same wave. And it also had Ironhide and

the Insecticon, which was kickback. I'm just

trying to remember. So even though your Kmart

might be shit. It might still have those remnants

of the same wave hanging around. I looked. Oh,

you did? Aw, that sucks. It's a shame. They had

two or three of these RC frenzies and I grabbed

one. The rest of them were all Revenge of the

Fallen robot heroes. Maybe a Toys R Us with old

stock might have. Maybe. Like I said earlier

in this episode... I'm going to Toys R Us for

my birthday. That's where my mother will be taking

me. Because I want to see what other Mighty Mugs

they have if I don't already have all of the

ones that I'm wanting at this point. Cool. You

know, again, we've talked about Mighty Mugs before.

But for me, right now, they're like the most

awesome things ever. They just are. And the Marvel

ones, again, goes to detail. Not only do the

Transformers ones have detail, but Marvel, I

don't know how much detail they have, because

I haven't really seen them all, but I've seen

them all, I don't really have them all yet. I

know for a fact that the exclusive Logan, or

the Logan figure where it's supposed to, it's

Logan, not actually the Wolverine figure, it's

Logan. He comes with a cowboy hat. I mean, you

know. Cool. How many mighty mugs do you do we

know that come with extra accessories outside

of guns? Do they come with any beer? That'd be

good actually a little yeah, I know you actually

um I Dare say out of all the mighty mugs that

I've seen in person shockwave G1 shockwave is

the most articulated and has the most Attention

to detail and by that I mean The fact that they

took his his gun arm and they put the the cord

into his arm and then moved it all the way back

into his back it it just That's just money mug

shockwave is like like oh my god. Holy crap.

Everyone has to have that Yeah, I really want

that one. He's not out here yet. I don't know

if he ever will be but one day Alright, so unless

we have any other final thoughts that I guess

we can go into closing here unless you guys have

anything else you want to talk about. I guess

I might as well just pimp TFCon then. Might as

well. Well, TFCon is again coming in July 17th

and the 18th in 2010. It's the 9th Annual Transformers

Collectors Convention which is located in Toronto

in Canada. But don't let that American listeners

deter you because Toronto is very close on the

border. And not to mention it's a Canadian dollar,

so purchasing stuff will be in your favor. If

you got a dollar, it's worth a dollar something

here in change. So the deal room will be a cornucopia

of expenditures for you. We have guests, we have

exclusives, we have a custom class, we have panels.

It's BotCon Junior, to say the least. But it's

definitely not small. It's quite a large show.

So if you get a chance, check it out at TFCon

.ca. And it's a great event for meeting people

as well. I mean, my first year I met a whole

ton of people. Second year, you go back and you

know a whole ton of people and you meet more

people. It's arranged to be very social. There's

a whole evening of social activities. no lineups

or any of that crap unless you have pizza as

a lineup. Yep, that's the first time I've actually

met General Techno face -to -face was at a TFCON.

Yeah, I met a whole ton of people at TFCON and

it's great because then you come in and then

it's like, oh, hey, hey. You meet up with people

that you talk to online face -to -face. It's

really fun. On the Saturdays, we usually go to

the bar that's part of the hotel and the guests

join us. which is really cool. So imagine hanging

out until 5 a .m. with Derek Wyatt talking about

animated. So that's pretty awesome. Well, it

wasn't just animated, but it was still pretty

awesome. Yeah. And then we all ended up having

to go to bed when we realized that we all need

to get up early in the morning. Yeah. So anyways,

yeah, TFCon 2010, July 17th and 18th. Check it

out on tfcon .ca. Alright, going into the official

closing, thank you for joining us here on Toycast.

There are several ways to get in contact with

us. We'll leave feedback for the show. First

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I don't think we do though. The fourth is you

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Tecno? General Tecno. We hope you enjoyed this

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-related needs and more. For now, I am TFG1Mike

with General Techno and The Goddamn Protoman.

This is Optimus Prime, Transform and Rollout,

and thank you for listening. Until next time.

This is Optimus Prime, and you're listening to

All Things Transformers with Steve Megatron and

TFG1Mike. Transform and roll out! Soon it will

be a new year, a new decade, and that means a

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30. Pulse -pounding discussion -filled episodes

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This is the first ever Beast Wars review podcast,

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The TFG1 Vodcast has 24 action -packed discussion

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