Rodimus Deep Dive: Toys, Movies, Character Legacy, and Fandom

Cliffjumper, commence countdown. Five, four,

three, two... Hello and welcome to the spotlight

Rodimus episode of toy cast. No, we are not officially

back yet for toy cast We are still on hiatus,

but I have two awesome gentlemen with me the

goddamn proto man who as everyone knows is a

huge Rodimus fanboy and a toy cast first drew

Iden from what the fuck at DFW Thanks for having

me out when you're like we're doing to talk about

erotimus and it's gonna be a podcast I was like

a Rodcast sounds good I wanna do that sounds

like let's do it. Yeah Yeah, that'd be awesome.

Um, but yeah, I know I Cuz I had I follow you

guys follow you both on Twitter But I mean part

of man's been on toy cast for a number of episodes

over the past year that we've been on as far

as this show goes and I noticed Drew that you

have the erotimus toy as your As your Twitter

image, I was like, oh, well, he must be Rodimus

fanboy, so why not get the three of us together

and go on and on and on about the fishing pole.

The fishing pole. I don't have the fucking fishing

pole. You got to tell that story, Waldruz. Should

I tell it now, I guess? Yeah. Okay. I was in,

I think it was a Target, I live in Canada, so

we don't have Targets, but I went to Target in

the States with my girlfriend, and we were in

the fishing area, and I remember there was all

kinds of Transformer merchandise, and me, I buy

everything. I'm stupid, retarded, I'm a completist.

And so I see the fishing pole, and I'm like,

huh, fishing pole. They're so lazy, they just

put movie stickers on it or whatever, and now

it's a movie fishing pole, right? And so I'm

holding him like, you know what? I'm not going

to buy this. This is shallow. It's just, you

know, they just took like the CG of Optimus Prime

and they put it on this fishing pole. And then

my girlfriend's like, well, well, didn't Rodimus

use a fishing pole when he first appeared? And

I'm like, fine. And I just throw it into the,

I just throw it into the carriage. And it was

like, fine. You're right. Fun fact, Rodimus'

name in Hungarian is Pescher, which means in

French to be a fisher. Really? Yes. I know too

much. Yeah. I know way too much. Yes you do.

So Drew, when did your erotimist fanboyism start?

I guess back in the old 80s, watching the original

movie. I was just like, that guy's cool. He's

the leader now. He's the best. I don't know.

I mean, that's when it started. I think it kind

of... I kept going because I never had a figure

version of them. a hot rod was like maybe 2000

was when I finally got one just you know going

through the years of being like yeah you know

I didn't have one as a kid didn't you know nothing

ever came out in G2 you know I saw them in the

comic I'm like oh maybe you know maybe they'll

re -release them what they're doing with Sideswipe,

Inferno all these guys and then you know that

never came to be so you know eventually on eBay

when I had a job and you know could afford to

you know do eBay for myself I just like I think

one of the first things I ever bought on eBay

was high rod. I was like, I need this after all

these years. And I think that grew into the need

for me to get whatever's out there now, including

a couple weeks ago when I was just like, yep,

good. I want that, that, that, this. I was in

the same boat completely. It was the 86 movie.

I had no idea what Transformers was. I was three

and a half years old. My next door neighbor was

going. And I was just like, hey, what the hey?

He's going to movie, I'll go see movie. I'm three

and a half. I don't know. It could have been

anything. It could have been a Disney movie.

i didn't care i just wanted to go he was two

years older than me so he was into that transformer

thing i didn't know what it was i go to see this

movie i didn't know who optimist prime was when

he died i didn't care you know oh hey truck died

now big deal but there is this main character

of the whole movie this main character protecting

kidney daniel you know and uh... yeah i don't

see the again my three -year -old mind is making

the stupid little connections and the fact that

he became the leader at the end of the as you

just said number one you know like it just all

clicked then uh... you know i go home at the

time season two was on television so i watched

a couple season two episodes and and later on

season three i asked my dad hey could you get

me that you know yellow and red robot my dad

comes back with blaster That didn't work out

very well. And same like you, I did not get my

very first Hot Rod toy until the days of eBay.

Because also Hot Rod had a very big difficulty

being released in Canada because his packaging

was mislabeled. And a lot of the Targetmaster

Hot Rods, there's two versions of it. And on

the back of it, and here's a very interesting

fun fact, on the back of Hot Rod's text back

in America, it says he's an all -American boy.

in the Canadian version says he's an all Canadian

boy. No way. Yeah, so there was mistakes with

a lot of that and so a lot of them were pulled

back but you could still find them. If you go

to BotCon, if you find a trilingual packaged

Rotomus it says all Canadian boy on the back.

I know it's stupid shit but, you know... Yeah,

I... Originally, I had a problem with Hot Rods

slash Rodimus because obviously growing up in

the 80s everybody loved Optimus and then the

whole death scene happened and it's like No But

I I've really gotten I've really grown Rodimus

has really grown on me over the years Hot Rod,

Rodimus, whatever the hell you want to call him

I never had the original car. I have it now because

I bought it off eBay but my very first I think

one of the only transformers i ever owned was

the original eighty -six ron is prime toy uh...

the trailer ralph uh... is that you exist on

the trail ralph the one uh... okay i hope not

to do you know the truth i mean that's what is

really bad but to just on the trail ralph no

no i had i i had both but uh... both pieces to

the thing but I mean what I was saying was the

the original one that they came out for the movie

line the one with the trailer so but yeah and

I've loved him ever since it's just it's one

of those things where you know granted he he's

a young leader so that can kind of you know you

can kind of overlook mistakes but he Rodimus

was like season one and two was written solely

by an American writing crew at Marvel Where when

when they went into the movie in season three

the Japanese Takara really got involved and the

Japanese They loved the shit out of their emo

main characters if you go all the way back to

Gundam Or even Evangelion, which is also just

as huge in Japan. All their main characters have,

I wouldn't say emotional issues, but they have

doubt issues. And that's something that they

always, they like and they realize that. Optimus

Prime was red, white and blue. He was John Wayne.

He was the American leader. They wanted their

Japanese leader. And so that's what Rodimus was.

Like I always tell people, if you don't like

Rodimus Prime, You don't like Optimus Primal.

You don't like animated Optimus Prime, because

it's that same kind of leader. It's a doubtful,

young leader. And so to say, oh, I don't like

him, he doubts himself. So? So he's not Optimus

Prime. That's not the point. Optimus Prime is

Optimus Prime. Rodimus Prime is someone else.

You can't make those connections. Continue, if

you want to say something. Well, I was going

to say, going back to our days with eBay, when

you first got the Hot Rod toy finally after waiting

so long, would be like, hmm, a little small.

I imagine back a few years ago, it wasn't cheap

to get Rodimus off eBay. It was like, hmm, smaller

than I thought. I don't know, I guess I had...

The Rodimus Prime I thought was small. The Hot

Rod I actually thought was bigger than I expected.

Oh really? You know why though? Because at the

time all I had to compare to was like, you know...

all 84, 85 Autobots. And if you look at the 84,

you know, look at Side Swipe and Jazz, how small

they are compared to Rodimus. You know what I

mean? Like they were, the Diclon cars were a

lot smaller than the later Hasbro designed cars

that like, you know, blur cup, like they're,

they tower over them. Oh yeah. Exponentially.

So like when I got Hot Rod, I was expecting something

as big as Side Swipe and I was actually very

happy to not do that. The only two Rodimus's

that I currently have obviously is the G1 Hot

Rod and I have the Shattered Glass Rodimus and

looking at these side -by -side Shattered Glass

Rodimus is a little bit smaller Yeah, well he

was a very large toy, but most of those the I

guess you could call they were bulked up the

86 toys later on because they were made to be

more resilience to damage although Rodimus and

Otrod they kind of have their spoiler issue there

that could be broken but most of them were built

like bricks that if you threw them across a wall

they they would survive that impact where a lot

of the a big problem with the 84 85 toys were

like you know you take blue streak you turn them

one wrong way and you got a mysterious third

alt mode a convertible Like, it's just, all those

toys are broken to pieces so easily that when

they made those 86 characters, where Fleer O'Deary,

a Filipino guy, actually designed Rodimus, he

was like, you know, they were like, well, make

sure these are characters that if we made a toy,

they could be kind of bulky so they wouldn't

get damaged very easily, you know? Because the

old toys, there was big complaints about that.

Oh, yeah. Drew, what is your most prized Rodimus

possession? Oh wow, that is a great question.

Oh my goodness. I don't know, I wouldn't even,

I have no clue. Oh, I don't know, man. That's

a great, that is a great question. You know what,

actually, maybe I'd have to go ahead and say,

and this might not surprise people who know me,

but it is the first appearance of Rodimus then.

I believe it's the Headmasters 1. Is that the

first appearance, Rod? Yeah, Headmasters, yeah.

In Marvel USA, yes. Yeah, in Marvel USA, because

that was probably the only non -VHS copy of the

86 movie that I had. And as a kid who grew up

on comic books, I thought having the first appearance

was like having the rookie card of Mickey Manil.

You know, I mean, it was just like, if you have

the first appearance of a character, you, you

know, that was such a cool thing to have. And

I'll be honest, Drew, I have that issue and issue

four of Headmasters, CCG. Yeah, that's great.

Because of that because like I regard that as

kind of like, you know, you have first appearance

of Wolverine Hulk 181 You have first appearance

of hot rod headmasters number one, you know,

like I kind of viewed that as that too and I

went the over amount of dorkiness actually CCG

those What are they CCG'd at? 9 .9? One is 9

.8. One is 9 .7. You know, I mean, yeah, because

you can get those out anyways, you know, those

are easy to get I think my Headmasters 4 has

like a trace marks over it because I would try

to draw Erotimus and just try to trace it. Well

it's worth more then because it has that sentimental

value. Yeah, but I think that would have to be

just growing up and just having those comics

and being into comics as a kid. I was like, this

is the ultimate I have is her appearance. So

I mean that was all I had. Physically, that's

the only thing I had really of Erotimus until...

kind of grew up and was able to buy something

what uh... drew what is your current rodents

holy grail like what is out there for merchandise

around us that you will absolutely put down blanchard

i think that that uh... and i'm gonna mess this

up but it's uh... it's that model from the jet

from japan is that s h b m i don't know if that's

You're referring to the MS Axis resin kit model?

Yes, and I believe someone had like a box version

of it. Yeah, Hydra had one. Hydra had one at

BotCon that just passed. I forget how much he

was asking. Yeah, that goes for a good amount

of money. That, the RC, and the Alita one. That's

a pretty hard one to get. It's so hard to get.

And for a long time, I just viewed it as like...

It's a cartoon version of Rodimus. Oh, for the

longest time that was the nicest Rodimus toy

out there. Like up until I would say 2001 when

they started doing those PVCs. but prior to that

there was nothing that was more to show accurate

that because that one also came with the buzz

saw hand it comes with the uh... the repair hand

where he repaired uh... spike spike when he repaired

uh... cups kneecaps it comes with a goggle head

and a regular head but get all these different

variations that you could do when you build the

model kit like how you want it in the looking

it was amazing piece of engineering, back then

at least. Not to mention the other two characters

that were done, Alita 1 and RC never had toys,

so that was important too. Yeah, just such a

cool thing to have. I think eventually, I mean

sure I could have put down the money to get it

two weekends ago, but I think that's one of those

things that... Do you remember how much he was

asking? I think he was asking 300. Was it 300?

It might have been 300 because I swear I walked

by and it said 800 and I was like, wow, oh no.

No, no. Drew, seriously, and this is to all the

listeners too, you could find that. It pops up

once in a while on eBay. Don't pay more than

150. Because I have two of them. Again, I don't

want to sound like I'm some nutty. You're bragging,

man. You are bragging. I know I don't want to

brag, but I have two of them. But I only picked

them up because there was good opportunities

and they show up once in a while. you know if

you check once in a while like for the it's mc

like one word like mc hammer axis like like the

nazi german axis you know okay we are going a

proto man you have everything we know we already

know this everybody knows this so i mean it's

not like you know You saying, oh, I have two,

or I have six, or I have three. It's not like

nobody already knows this. I mean, it's not rubbing

it in people's faces that you have more than

one of something, because you are the ultimate

completist, especially when it comes to Rodimus

stuff. Rodimus is one thing, Transformers in

general. Well, it's true. Some people, like,

they'll brag about their jazz collection. I'll

be like, well, I kind of got all of that, too.

But, you know, I don't want to say anything,

because then I'll look like a douchebag. I have

yet to get a hold of the original and the Henkay

versions of the Classics remolding of Rodimus.

The only one I do have of that mold is the Shattered

Glass version. What did you guys think of the

original Classics, the US version, and also the

Henkay version? Drew, you can go first. The original

Classics version, I mean... the day i thought

boom in my car let's go at you know all the losses

i was like we can shuffle the manly and with

sweeping arm uh... but rather than to get out

i'd i was i loved it at the same time there there

are flaws with it uh... for the hell is a little

small and uh... fine just i mean otherwise pretty

spot -on i loved it but the hands were the weird

but Other than that, I think I transformed that

thing 25 times in the first 10 seconds I had.

It's crazy. It's over -exaggeration city, but

it was just so cool to finally have something

that's modern, that's Rodimus, that's not like

a crud, we'll say, because Energon Rodimus was

nothing to write home about, so it's just nice

to have this thing come in and be like that.

personally I envisioned all the classics to be

like perfectly G1 accurate I mean I think that's

what everybody envisioned so I was I guess a

little disappointed with the overall aesthetic

of it at first like oh it's kind of you know

it's kind of not exactly G1 it's kind of like

more modern on this but at the same time I loved

it I mean I mean how could you go wrong he's

in the first wave boom let's get him out there

not wait for the line to die and then come back

and then maybe get him out let's get him out

right away it was It's an awesome toy. The gun

isn't anything special, but... The gun is very

funny because it looks like he's shitting out

some flames in car mode. Yeah, and that's my

thought on it. What about the Henkei version?

The Henkei version was more G1 accurate. The

Henkei version very much. A couple weeks ago,

that was on my list of stuff I'd like to get.

You must get it. Like right now, until that Masterpiece

1 comes out, that is like, in my opinion, and

I've had every Rodimus figure practically, that

is the definitive Rodimus figure. Like, when

you see that gold spoiler and the clear blue

that's used for the cockpit, which makes a big

difference, it does, because all the clear plastic

that's used right now on Rodimus is, for the

classics one, is purple. but they use clear blue

and it makes all the difference. It really does.

The way that they do the chest, the coloring,

it's a lot better figure. It is. And it just,

to me, at the moment, it's the definitive Rodimus

figure. At least in my opinion. Yeah, I definitely

wanted to get it. I didn't really say, it kind

of either everybody bought them up right at once,

or the only one I saw was like a hundred bucks.

See, that's the problem, because right now, because

of that protector, It's just it. It's so any

Rodimus mold. It's not just like the nk1 or any

Rodimus mold is worth money But because thanks

to mr. Marcello who I talked to He let us know

that there's a Rodimus reissue coming out in

America soon We don't know what it is, but he

did the box art for it. You know, you know All

those universe 2 .0's you know how they had the

box art on it like acid storm and yep, and Marcello

did all of those he was asked to do one of hot

rod done in classic style for hasbro he doesn't

know what that means we know we know what that

means yeah it's coming we know we only do it

he did it very recently to it's not like something

he did like a year ago and it's just got left

behind they recently commissioned him to do it

so that and there's been a lot of weird rodimus

clear stuff that has been popping up in there

is that one that people called as a knockoff

we don't know yet what the story is but we know

that that molds gonna see put plenty more uses

the next couple of uh... next couple months yeah

that's all this showing up left and right anymore

between that alleged knockoff, which we all can

assume will be something fun in the near future,

and then you've got side burn in the Rodimus,

and then you've also got the clear Rodimus from

the Suns of Cybertron. From the Suns of Cybertron,

yeah. So, you know, there's going to be plenty

of opportunities, and hopefully what that means

will be good news for you, Drew, where that'll

at least help the pricing. to pick up a classic,

excuse me, a Henkei Rodimus cheaper later on

in the lines. I want them all. I mean, honestly,

I don't care. You know, you said earlier, Drew,

about the color aesthetic of the US one. Yeah,

I tend to agree, even though I like the purple

translucent. But other than that, you know, the

flames and all that stuff, it's, I hate to say

this, and I know Pertoman's probably going to

kill me. It almost looks like a bait. Uh -oh.

Because of the flames, because of the flames.

But anyway, what do you guys, before we move

on, what did you guys think of the inclusion

on the Classics mold with the Razor Blade? Oh

yeah, that's right. I thought it was cool. I

mean, it was a cool idea, I suppose. But the

Razor Blade, it's a little small. You know what

I mean? I think it was small because they really,

you know what, the Classics mold in general,

At first because I know on the packaging they

call it like a data disc or something like they

they weren't even able to call it like you know

the buzz saw that he normally has. And it doesn't

even really look like a buzz saw at all. If you

go on repro labels they have a really nice upgrade

set for your Rotomus that you actually put a

sticker over it and it looks like a buzz saw

and it's really nice. It's really nice, I suggest

to anyone who owns that mold to try to pick that

up and it upgrades your Henkei or Classics or

Autumus very nicely. But it's just because I

guess they really wanted to do as much that they

could with that figure. Because if you look at

a lot of the other Classics, they're kind of

spiritual departures of what they were, with

the exception of, say, Mirage. But it almost

looks like when you put Classics Optimus Prime

next to his G1 incarnation, you see the differences.

When you put like Megatron or, you know, Bumblebee,

you see the differences. But when you put like

Hot Rod Starscream next to their G1 toys, you

almost see like they tried their best to keep

the spirit there. They really did and what I

also liked is being a mechanic me personally

I like that it kind of put an end to what car

Rodimus turned into Like because a lot of people

it would just be the easy. Oh, it's a futuristic

2005 The 2005 car well Now like, you know, we've

after that toy came out Fleer O'Deary who created

Rodimus kind of came out and said yeah Well when

I was in the Philippines Nissan was test driving

this this concept car called the dome zero You

know? And I thought it was a really cool looking

car, so I kind of based Rodimus off of it. Now

we all go back, and we look at the Dome Zero,

and we look at Rodimus, and now we look at the

Classics toy, and we're like, holy crap. It is

the same car. And it sucks because, being the

completionist I am, I wish the Dome Zero was

actually in retail. I'd be showing up to BotCon,

and I'd be like, hey bitches, wanna see my one

by one scale Rodimus? You know like like when

it comes to engineering though. It was really

cool I wish that they kind of figured out a way

to engineer This has always been a big problem

with Rodimus toys is where to put that hot rotted

engine You know put it on the back of his head

put it on his chest or somewhere You know I'm

glad that the animated toy gets rid of that,

but I know you're probably gonna want to get

into that after yeah we'll get into that in a

minute, but yeah, you know the the hood engine

on the classics mold it doesn't really bother

me that much at least it's not a big issue but

it's just it's it's one of those things that

i was like oh you know what one day they're gonna

have to figure out a way to take it out yeah

uh... one last thing about the classics mold

what do you guys think of his lack of elbows

on his arms i mean his door just kind of flips

to have have the arm thing but it's like there's

no elbow there at all you know there was a time

when Rodimus is when Hot Rod's only articulation

was his elbows. So you can't hate on it. No,

I'm not hating on him at all. I'm just saying

they could have designed the toy somewhat a little

bit better than... You know what? This is something

that I've seen with every Rodimus figure with

the exception of the Revoltek because they actually

tried to address that issue. That spoiler will

always get in the way. If you if you you know,

and it's very difficult to to work like if you're

someone who loves like making your transformer

Superposable and then epic poses. It's very difficult

to work around that spoiler. It's just it's it's

there, you know But so Revoltec, they were like,

well, you know, we're all about the superposable.

We're all about the, you know, guns ablaze and

jumping in the air with your like, you know,

your elbow on your spinal cord. So they were

like, how are we going to get around this? And

so they made his spoiler extremely small. They

did it in like the Dreamwave style. A lot of

people call it, but even the Dreamwave style

didn't make the spoiler that small. But that's

what they had to do. They had to shrink it down

to accommodate, you know, his ball joints and

everything to be able to. make him be able to

be posable and so i guess when they engineered

the classics when they were just like well we

gotta like you know figure out something because

if he holds his gun straight hits the spoiler

if we if we like put his arm like this oh it's

gonna hit the spoiler so i don't know yeah okay

now um i think all three of us can agree that

even though it was only like uh... less than

a minute and a half worth of worth of video Season

3 of animated was by far the best Rodimus rendition

since G1 What did you guys think of the cartoon

part even though he was only in like I said five

or six minutes of the cartoon Well, I kind of

expressed the same thing that Derek kind of said

where it was like He said this at CFCon where

it's like, it's great that we got Judd Nelson,

but at the same time, it's bad that we got Judd

Nelson. Because when you get Judd Nelson as a

guest star, that means what are your chances

of Rodimus showing up again in future episodes,

or having a whole Rodimus episode where he's

talking or something. So he was like, hey, we

got Judd Nelson, that's awesome, but now we just

kind of screwed Rodimus into ever having a speaking

role in the next 13 episodes. banking off of

that what i don't know you know all respect in

the world to judge nelson he was the first one

to ever do the role but i don't understand is

why they just didn't go back to mr gaudier i

guess it was busy dick dick gotcha does all a

lot of uh... a lot of work in hollywood is a

very busy guy actually and also us to blue is

the voice caster for animated she kind of she

has poll she really does she has yet to really

and it just kind of was like a we're doing this

character and then they turn to sue and go we

need this person and so obviously i guess derrick

probably along with eric sieben offer was probably

well and we really want you know just yeah so

you know they probably would have even accepted

uh... Dick Gotye, they're probably like, we gotta

get Judd, I don't care, just get Judd, you know?

And Sue, she's able to do it, you know? When

they did Rekgar, they were like, you know...

Get Weird Al! Weird Al has a big connection with

that, let's try to do that. Sue, she has her

pull, man, she has her connections, she's been...

She's been in the biz since 1967. A lot of people

don't know that. She has quite the phone book.

Drew, before we move on, what about you as far

as the cartoon thing in Transwarp? What did you

think of Rodimus' coverage in that? It was just

awesome. I know it kind of, as Perlman said,

just shot it in the foot. But man, it was just

cool. And it was a different weapon. And it wasn't

like shooting from his wrists. It was just like,

this is Rodimus. It's a little different, but

it sounds like him. It looks like him. And man,

it was just cool to see him. I was actually pretty

angry when he got frozen and stuff. I was like,

no, we need more. What is this? What does this

cop have? Fucking oil slick. I'm going through

the toy aisle and I'm like, fucking oil slick.

fucking oil slick that's that's just god -awful

and so with ronimus unfortunately being cosmic

rusted by that bastard oil slick um we weren't

even sure if we were gonna get a toy of ronimus

he like i said before he got like three or four

things you know three or four minutes stream

time and then poof gone And then was it BotCon

2008 or 2009? 2009 I think. That they showed

off the unreleased, as of yet released, hidden

wave or exclusive wave or whatever the hell kind

of marketing thing you want to call it from Hasbro

of RC, Cybertronian Ratchet, Hydrodive Bumblebee,

Fugitive Waspinator, and Rodimus Minor. What

do you guys think? uh... i'll ice get that bot

con for some stupid reason i was really did i

was really busy that weekend and i was like if

i go to this park on i'm going to get help for

it later so i was going to go for it why don't

you tell your story oh yeah well i got help for

it i see i thought i was gonna get help for it

from my family and everything because i was too

busy and i think they need my help with everything

but then i the saturday night i'll never forget

that i'm at home saturday i'm just chilling relax

in front of tv my day's done i get a text message

It's a number I don't know. I was like, who the

fuck is this? It ends up it's Derek Wyatt. Why

is Derek Wyatt texting me? It's a text message

with an image in it. He's holding this toy, and

I don't know what this toy is. I couldn't even

make it out. But he writes on the caption while

he's holding this toy, and he has this face,

and he goes, jealous bitch? And I was like, what

the fuck is this? And I swear, because it's my

cell phone. I can't make out the image. And I'm

like, what the hell is this? So I'm like, OK,

you know what? I got to find out what the hell

he's talking about. I go on my computer. And

then Gogdog, he uploaded those Rodimus pictures.

And my fucking heart sank. I was like, oh my

god. I skipped the show. And I missed out on

seeing this Rodimus toy in person. i'll never

forget that like derrick because derrick at the

picture that derrick sent me after the show uh...

hasbro gave him the rodimus he actually owns

the what one of the rodimus uh... animated figures

and in his hotel room he took a picture with

it he sent it to me myself i don't know how we

got my number probably for maybe uh... chris

ho or someone but that like that like ruined

by weekend let me tell you about What do you

guys think of all the now do we know specifically

What the differences will be between the US release

and the Japanese release or is it just being

a Japanese release? We've seen like photos and

again, it's so hard I'm thinking metallic paint

because again the one that we saw in person which

I finally got to see in person at 2010 BotCon

You know, we've seen we've seen like some like

stock photos and it looks like he has a metallic

finish at least on the side but you know i don't

know i don't know like it's hard to say because

all we've seen uh sorry one sec what do you guys

uh drew what do you think of the clear version

uh listen when that those pre -orders went up

for the for the uh the animated Japanese animated

Rodimus. I was like, boom, Japanese animated

Rodimus, got it. Then I was kind of trolling

the forums, you know, all gloat and like, ha

ha, pre -ordered it, blah, blah, blah. Someone's

like, oh yeah, I got the crystal set too. I'm

like, boom, what the, you know, just immediately

was typed in crystal Rodimus. I might as well

just put like, here's my credit card number into

Google and BBTS had it. There were no pictures,

there was nothing. And I was just like, yeah,

we need it. You know, now looking at it now,

I'm ecstatic that I have it. I might even go

ahead and get the other two -pack, the clear

two -pack, just because I feel like you can't

go wrong. The packaging is going to be great.

It's going to be just something cool to have

that I feel like it's going to be one of those

things like Biontech Clear Mirage, where if you

don't get it in the first round, maybe you don't

get it. You know what I mean? Maybe it's just

you don't get it. And I was just like, I can't

risk that. I've waited so long for this mold

to come out, I suppose. I'm getting it both.

Let's do it. Let's have some fun. i don't know

if you guys saw uh... apparently jen zao has

gotten a hold of the i guess the u .s. version

because he put uh... i don't want to get into

this no no no i don't know what my god i got

the offer wait wait wait wait wait wait wait

hold on before you go into your fanboy rage i

just want to say i want to ask if you guys saw

that article on tformers the pictures of it because

finally got an answer which I kind of knew this

is what it was gonna be I think Proto Man you

told me that it's basically the Rodimus mold

is almost similar to the Jazz mold as far as

the way he is gonna transform but I was always

curious where the hell his front wheels go because

his back wheels are on his arms And normally

when you see wheels on a transformer, at least

when I think of it, the other two wheels have

to be on the legs and they're not on Rodimus.

So I'm thinking where the hell do the other two

wheels go? And then I finally saw they go under

his hood. The thing that's amazing about this

toy is they really went out of their way to hide

vehicle -mode kibble. Again, the thing that I

was talking about before, they engineered out

the spoiler, finally. They flipped it over, and

you get the Autobot logo. They tucked in the

wheels. I remember when I first saw Gogdog's

first photos in 2009, I was like, how the hell?

Where did the car go? Exactly. Where did this

all go? And then someone was like, oh, it's kind

of like the jazz mold. And so then I went and

I... dug up my jazz figure, and I'm like, oh,

OK, I kind of see where some of that's going,

but where'd the rest of it go? And later photos

that showed up kind of gave me a better idea

that, OK, this goes here. There's some tucking

there. And obviously, the crossbow store is only

in vehicle mode, and then you've got to put it

aside. But I mean, it's all amazing. I'm wondering,

just out of sheer curiosity, I'd love to see

a picture of the US version or the clear version,

any version of that mold without the crossbow

because I'm wondering what it looks like on top

with like if you weren't going to use it as an

accessory because I don't know if I really like

that crossbow being on the it's almost like a

second spoiler it's you know what it's just there

to be there you know it's it's like well it's

got to be somewhere You know what I mean? Yeah.

I mean, I would've preferred it like that than

them trying to engineer it into the alt mode

and then it kind of ruining the actual figure.

You know what I mean? Sometimes a gimmick is

not a gimmick. Right. Right. So if it has to

be on the side, for the better. You know what

I mean? If it makes the figure look great, you

know, that's all that matters. Yeah. Getting

messages from IDW staff, I'm sorry. One second.

That's all right. What about you, Drew? What

are your overall impressions of the supposed

transformation and all that stuff? Yeah, just

what you were saying. Where's this car? Where

to go? What's going on here? I suppose the hood

is a little large in robot mode, but... Just

from the general animated aesthetic, you can't

complain. You know what I mean? It looks cool.

It's gonna fit right in. It's gonna look like

the cartoon. And I think the cool part about

it is it's maybe a different head design, but

I like it. It's still Rodimus, but it's not as,

I don't know, maybe as compact as past Rodimuses

have had to be where it's... it's you know it's

kind of a skull cap he's wearing this one's more

he's got angles and it's you know he's he's an

archer or you know you can have he's a cavalier

yeah what he is he's a cavalier he can act however

he wants you know this that head design kind

of just Makes him up much more free than having

to be like, okay Well, he's kind of got like

a skull and maybe slight princess Leia ears on

the side It's like no, he's cool. He's got this

and I do agree though I am sure to see what he

looks like without the crossbow Because I kind

of want to see what that looks like, you know

with with the side I am actually very very surprised

that they That they actually on the like we all

know animated used Gold for the Decepticons and

silver for the Autobots now He does have a silver

Autobot symbol in in all modes on the top of

his like it's above his windshield But by the

spoiler I'm very surprised that they actually

used a red one on the hood Under the engine.

I think that is extremely awesome That actually

led to a lot of speculation, too, because when

those first images showed up from BotCon 2009,

a lot of people were saying, oh, this is how

animated is going to show up now. It's going

to be in the Universe 2 .0 line. Because there

was animated toys in the Universe 2 .0 line.

The legends were released in the Universe 2 .0.

And all those legends had the red and purple

Decepticon Autobot logos on them. Where the where

the legends when they appeared in the animated

series and those two packs with like ratchet

or the clear lockdown Yeah, they had silver ones.

So a lot of people like oh, here we go Now we

know all the animated toys are gonna be in universe

2 .0 And of course, obviously they're wrong,

but it's just that that led to all kinds of assumptions

I think in the end what it was is just because

I think there's kind of this like one logo per

figure rule and so it was like oh well since

one of them silver on rodimus and it's you know

the standard one it's the one that's going to

be in vehicle mode in the packaging i guess since

there's one that's kind of hidden tucked away

we can make that one red i don't know there's

one of many things something to ask erin archer

next year yeah i i think it's extremely extremely

cool What else do you guys want to say about

the animated Rodimus toy, whether it's the toy

or the appearance in the cartoon? Or even, I

don't know if either one of you guys... I love

the tech spec actually because the toy was there

and they had the in -box toy also and because

the beauty with those glass cases is you could

walk around them, I read his tech spec on the

back and I love what they did. They explained

saying that... the flame that he wears on his

chest is referred to as the flame of valor and

it is only given to autobots that have something

about them something about them that is special

that's different from other recruits and so there

then it goes on saying he could be one day the

chosen one or the next magnus and so like they

even give backstory to why he has a flame on

his chest which is pretty cool that is awesome

i mean that is very awesome never really did

it has been there which is that it's always just

been there and and i remember even even uh...

i know superlink did this and in in energy on

the actually censored out the scene i don't know

why they did that but in superlink uh... they

actually show that the flight was supposed to

represent his faction he was team team rodimus

in japan team rodimus convoy and uh... in the

energy on version they cut out that scene which

i thought was kind of stupid but whatever it's

i'd never watch a japanese series and it's american

interpretation because it's always butchered

Um, but you know, so there was kind of an explanation

there, but you know, now they kind of have a

different explanation. So it's, it's pretty cool.

It's a pretty cool thing. The flame of valor.

And when I read that, I was just like, Oh, that's,

that's great. You know? And I know that the all

spark Almanac that just recently came out, the

second one, um, Mr. Jim, thanks to him, he sent

me some scans of, uh, of the Rodimus pages and

wow, they really flesh them out in that two pages

and the whole thing. is dictated by cup from

the animated continuity. Oh, really? That's awesome.

I was going to ask you guys, did you guys...

I was going to ask you, did either of you guys

get a chance to pick up the Almanac? Yes, I got

it, thankfully, because Amazon was a little late,

but they sent it to me yesterday and I got to

burn through the important parts of it. It's

a great book. I don't want to spoil, but just

that entry... and um and Vangelis being in it

yeah yeah Vangelis that was unexpected that was

unexpected i didn't expect to turn a page and

see him there so that was uh that was interesting

What about you, Drew? Did you get the almanac

at all yet? I didn't get the almanac, but it

was great reviews. Yeah, I'm thinking I'm going

on Amazon here in a few minutes. It's the cheapest

on Amazon right now. If you could get it as like

it was originally 21, now I think it's like 14.

It's really cheap now. So if you're willing to

wait a little bit, you're going to save a lot.

Yeah. So Drew, what do you have? As far as your

overall thoughts on Rodimus through any of the

continuities, toys, cartoons, because I know

you have to kind of cut out early on us, but

give us your final thoughts. Yeah, well, you

know, I think this is one of maybe the things

that kind of separates me from other people,

but I would love... Love love love if there was

some undiscovered as of yet like Rodimus action

master that just showed up all of a sudden They're

like, oh this must have been this is a mold from

back in the day. I never got used I mean, yeah,

he has it Well, let's put it this way the guy

who did the action master for the unofficial

BotCon 2004 Name escapes me the guy who did the

breakdown action master from the BotCon in 2004.

He went on to do other ones, unofficially, and

he sold some of them on eBay. He did a Rodimus

one, a hot Rodimus. Guess who made sure the proxy

bid was extremely high to a blank check point

of view so that he'd get it no matter what? Is

it the Custom Masters one? Breakdown GT Which

is the breakdown? Yeah, yeah, he went on to do

other ones unofficial. Oh, yeah, I see it Yeah,

so it's yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I see it I see

it and I use that sculpt and he sculpted new

heads and stuff and he made a photon eliminator

gun Yeah, but yeah, I know obviously we would

we'd all want to have like an official action

master I'm officially action master of the entire

86 movie line. I would buy up in a second. If

that was next year's Bacchanal Exclusive, fuck

it. One day, one day, one day. Someday. Before

we let Drew go, that was one thing that I absolutely

could not stand. Because back in 2008 when I

was collecting, because I actually started collecting

in 2008. uh... and i was getting all the toys

that i had as a kid back so i was paying ungodly

amounts of money on ebay yes i know stupid but

anyway uh... the hot rod figure which i have

now and i got the galvatron figure the original

colors galvatron and i'm thinking what the hell

is wrong with this picture because good lord

they are so not size scale wise. Actually the

original Rodimus toy was supposed to be a lot

larger. They downsized it because there was a

big confusion. again the japanese had a big influence

yeah i think that's the big difference between

the animated toys and everything else because

the end of the animated was as far as i know

i'm from any incorrect me they were designed

and done here in america or or the designs were

done in america to be more majority of it was

done in in the states yeah was uh... but i think

that's mainly because of the influence of Derek

Wyatt being involved where the past series is

Cybertron, Galaxy Force, and all that. That was

heavily Japanese, so Takara Tami had a bigger

influence on choice of character and choice of

design. That's why we always get those combiner

leaders. We got that every year in a row. The

Japanese love that. That's their thing, so that's

why we always got that. Well, I would like to

thank Drew for stopping by for us Anytime you

want to come on toy cast and you can talk any

toys doesn't have to be transformers Anytime

you want to come on you're more than welcome

to cool. Thanks Yeah, you can if you want to

extend the invitation to the rest of the TFW

crew We've had lupus on a couple of times, but

he also does The Justice League review show with

me. So I talked to him all the time But anytime

you want to come back on just let us know Well,

gracias, yeah. Thanks for having me on, and everybody

listen to WTF at TFW. It's weekly. Everybody

join the Transformers Collectors Club. I gotta

get that my plug is in before I leave. He's a

resident colorist. Did you color on the animated

graphic novel for the 86 movie? I didn't. No,

I did not. I could have sworn I had something

that you colored on. I don't know. Hell, I only

have two Transformers comic books, so... Which

two do you have? Umm... Bot Con 08 and the animated

graphic novel. Ah, if you had Bot Con 07 or 06,

you would have had a drug... Because he did Dawn

of Future Past, I believe. I know you did the

Beast Wars one. Yeah. You did a bunch of the

pages. I know that one for sure. The first few.

And then time restraints kept me from doing the

rest. So I was like, we got to combine talents

there. But I mean, I don't know. They went out

and got somebody like Josh Perez. Yeah, he's

no good. I'm working with him right now, actually.

He's the best. Tell him I set up. He really is.

You know what? I'm working on a little project

with him right now, and let me tell you, wow.

Like, well, everyone's going to see the results

in a week and a half from now at TFCon, but wow.

Like, what we're working on right now, Jesus

Christ. I can't even, like, he did an amazing

job. Like, Alex Milne did the art, but like Josh

really brought out the colors. That's all I got.

There's an upper echelon of Transformers colorists.

He's up there. Espen's up there. Josh. You're

up there. There's others up there, but I mean

those three guys, when I go online, it gets inspiration.

It's those guys and Josh is, you know, he fights

for the top every time I see something new. So

yeah. Well, this is the Josh Perez podcast all

of a sudden. Hot who? we're going to get the

thanks again for having me and i do appreciate

it and maybe i will pick up on that offer come

back and i will talk with other than that some

of the cyber trance that finally comes out will

oh yeah just like it and hang on for a second

drew and we will be right back after this break

your sensor cells. And unfortunately Mr. Drew

Iden had to leave. He had real world stuff that

he had to attend to, which is cool. Great pleasure

having Drew on. This is the first time that I've

worked with him. I don't know, Proto Man, you've

met him before, haven't you? No, we partied at

BotCon. Okay, well there you go. This is the

first time that I've had the pleasure of working

with him. Really awesome dude. And we will have,

hopefully, Drew on in the future when he has

time. Now... since it's just Proto Man and I,

hopefully we're not going to be here all night.

But we're going to be talking at Nausium about

Mr. Hot Rod Rodimus Prime, Rodimus whatever the

hell you want to call him. Hot Rodimus, Rodimus

Convoy, Rodimus Major, Rodimus Minor, whatever

you want to call him. Yeah. He's had many names,

but even Hot Shot as of the video. Ah, no. Yeah,

I know. You know what? I asked Aaron Archer about

that one. I kid you not. I actually did. and

he he gave me a kind of a not answer about it

you know he was kind of like well activision

was trying to get the rights for it and video

game name licensing is different than toy licensing

yada yada yada essentially they they couldn't

the time for the time for the time being he's

named hot shot but just in the ds game he says

in the future things could change you know but

for now he's hot shot for now in the game no

i'm happy about it either no no no no no Oh man,

where do we start? When did Hot Rod slash Rodimus

first appear? Was it in the comics or in the

cartoon? How it worked was in 1986. His first

ever to grace humanity, if you will, if you want

to be technical, was the Toy Fair of 1986, which

is when Hasbro was unveiling all their 1986 property

toys that were going to be for the next year.

And we're not talking the toy fair that we have

today where the fans get in and take photos and

put them on the internet. Toy fairs back in the

day were solely business related. It's kind of

like what E3 is now where a couple of years ago,

and I'm starting to cut you off there, but it's

the same thing as E3 now. Like the last, I think

2008, they stopped having fans and just anybody

go in and it was like all press. So that's the

same? Well, it's not even a matter of press now.

In the case of Toy Fair back in the day, it wasn't

a matter of press. It was just the toy companies

and distributors. I wouldn't say Walmart because

that really didn't exist back in 86, although

I could be wrong. I'm not familiar with Walmart's

history. But like consumers distributing and...

and uh... and target no and wall greens back

then so a lot of those things will come in the

you know deciding to carry product again you

know it was the early eighties toys were still

kind of making their exponential comebacks you

know from the obscurity that existed prior so

they have to sell these toys and uh... there

actually is images of those toys when they first

appeared like how they look we had some wacky

colors back then we had um... Rodimus was a lot

more pinker, if you will, the toy. And these

were all called test shots, which are the first

attempts at the final product. We had an Ultra

Magnus -colored Superion. Like I kid you not

like picture superior on but an ultra Magnus

colors a lot of weird stuff But that was like

the stuff they were showing up and that was the

first time anything of Rodimus ever showed up

in the world now And that's publicly now if you

want to talk mass public like we could have got

our hands on six movie the movie was the first

thing the first ever piece of it and Then after

that like, you know, cuz Drew was bringing up

Something which very rings true because I'm also

a big comic book nerd Which is the comic books

and depending on where you came from Led to different

things because if you came from the UK the first

appearance of Rodimus was actually I believe

it was issue 187. I have to double check that.

I know the story. It was called Cup's story.

It was a short story. That was in issue 187 of

G1. And it was in 1987 that issue came out. And

it was the first appearance of Hot Rod. And he

was just this guy who was on a ship and, you

know, he got captured by an alien and Cup helped

him out. In America, the first appearance, like

Tru said, was in the Headmaster's comic, issue

number one. Mm -hmm. And... and yeah like that

was his first appearances all around and then

of course he showed up in toy stores following

that afterwards you know but you know Rodimus

he I think if you really want to break it down

it all started with the movie it it start every

the whole either the hate or the love it all

started with the movie and I think that a lot

of people when you think of the eighty six movie

and a lot of people who are just more fans it's

their definitive thing you know the eighty six

movie is transformers to them and to me it is

too uh... hot rod is the main character he is

he is the guy who carries the story and it's

kind of the reason why i love him in the end

was because to me that was the main character

of the story it but that's what is right Start

like you know the movie to me was kind of like

Star Wars when I was a child where? When you

saw when you saw Star Wars for the first time

and Obi -Wan Kenobi dies early on you don't really

care that much Because the main character is

Luke Skywalker Obi -Wan Kenobi is Optimus Prime.

You know he was in the movie early on he's the

dude You know who's all -powerful and everything

and then he dies early on and then the new young

guy ends up taking his role the Luke Skywalker

Hot Rod character, and then he blows up a giant

planetoid Connections if you will oh yeah, I

I know you know this and I know you have this

I found it very interesting uh... you know everybody

already knew this before the twentieth anniversary

dvd came out but um... i think on the commentary

for that flindy lee and uh... nelson shinn and

siu blue and i think somebody else to the commentary

with them it did the fan commentary also no yeah

i'm talking about the stupid fan commentary uh...

i'm talking about the the the producer commentary

uh... they uh... flindy lee pointed out in the

death scene when the matrix falls he's like oh

that's our little foreshadowing thing to you

know turn it bright blue and just basically look

you right in the face and say hey that's going

to be the new leader yeah well there was there

was always that dual connotation that i always

like you know and any rodimus family like no

don't say that but you know there was the one

half of me that's like oh the matrix chose him

because the first person to touch it when it

leaves primes hand becomes the chosen one i actually

thought that and you know so rodimus you know

became chosen one due to luck if you will because

he caught it although but then you know the true

meaning is because of the chosen one prophecy

you have a point of that is that what he touched

it people like crazy and then we get the magnets

kind of like it almost fell out if you put it

here it's like all right now i don't want to

be in there no stop it up that is that you're

getting inside you know but yeah like you know

he's a very you know what i love about hot rod

is that the whole character itself always has

a very deep meaning behind him. I like that,

you know, Transformers, especially what's being

done with it now, thanks to Aaron Archer, which

was shown at BotCon, it's becoming very historical.

It's becoming very delving into the past and

the history and the prophecies and the covenant

of Primus and the original 13. And I love how...

You know that I love that stuff about it, and

I love how it relates to hot rod where you know

You know primus when he created the matrix. You

know he wanted that all the transformers to live

have a life and when they pass away their spark

rejoined the matrix to make him stronger for

one day a prophecy and autobot rise from the

ranks and use the power within the matrix to

stop the impending evil that will one day approach

cybertron now those lines are actually taken

from the uk interpretation of uh... of uh...

i believe it was the void because they always

have in -betweens, in -between issues. Right.

And the void was the explanation of Primus and

Unicron. And of course, you know, the whole thing

of the chosen one, you know, which is again related

to, say, the Bible, the second, you know, new

Genesis with Jesus, and Jesus being the Son of

God. And so if you're the Son of God, look at

Primus's design. And then you look at Rodimus

and they're uncanny right down to the yellow

spoiler and the red head and everything. There's

a lot of weird linkage to that, where it's like

there's just something that even makes him ascend

beyond Optimus Prime, where Optimus is the leader.

I will not deny Optimus Prime. He is the most...

iconic and definitive Autobot leader of all time.

He will always be considered one of the best.

You cannot argue it. He never does wrong. But

then you have Rodimus, and there's always this

like, but Rodimus was the chosen one, where no

matter how good Optimus could be, he could just

never be as good as what Rodimus was destined

to become. I loved like you know there was a

line in the adaptation of the of the original

movie done by Marvel the original 86 run of the

comic book and like you know obviously it's you

know he's opening up the coconut matrix if you

ever seen the image of it it's kind of obscure

looking because the matrix was still in the prototype

stage when they were doing the comic book uh...

and he has a huge why there is like i'm you know

i'm now doing what is the bidding of primus when

i was born to do what i was chosen to do you

know and they they really drew it out more so

just like our darkest hour and i was loved like

that interpretation of that that's why i love

uh... the comic book version of of g one i i

almost in a in a way i almost favorite more than

the cartoon Especially the Japanese continuity

because I love that a lot But I love the UK interpretation

because UK the the the Marvel comic book UK G1

USA Whatever interpretation because they just

they made Transformers seem so mystical and religious

Related and I'm not a religious person not by

any means but it's just I love that take that

they did on it I really do and and how it relates

to hot rod. Yeah, and I love to that There was

a reader of the comic books back then who wrote,

because Grimlock actually had his own newsletter

section called Grimgrams, where he would answer

questions that fans would write in. One fan asked,

why does Hot Rod look like Primus? And then even

dumb Grimlock, and this is obviously a writer

who's supposed to be acting as Grimlock, said

it's because Rodimus is the chosen one. So like

you know that kind of stuff. It's just it. It's

awesome. It really is it's I Can't stress it

enough. You know and and I love that due to recent

years People have really started turning around

because I've been a hot rod fan my whole life

so and I think that between Like when I got it

back into the internet fandom in 1995 between

1995 and up to I would say 1999 There was a lot

of Rodimus hate. There still is a lot of Rodimus

hate. You know what there is, but just not as

much. Back then, he was up there with Wheelie.

he really didn't i'm not joking he was up there

with like the i'd fucking hate rotters prime

people you know like that just that he was really

hated he killed off the mispride you know and

he he was really hated on and i had to deal with

that you know i did deal with people that you

know people say all hot rods exactly because

you know the stores is out there was a lot of

exactly like she doors just immature idiot who

just gets everyone in trouble and people are

always making those links and it was a tough

time but luckily when the japanese really started

to get involved in two thousand when car robots

came out notice robots in the skies then the

japanese right now that we're kind of involved

we want to use that leader that we really liked

and that was rotters so we saw the pvc's abroad

is the reissues of rotters and japan that the

mega pvc toys you know we would see all kinds

of little rotters paraphernalia coming out of

the g one character And then we would later on

just see more of Rodimus in general, in homages

and everything. But as a result of all that Rodimus

being in our face, people started to turn around.

Now we're getting a lot of people that love Rodimus.

You know, before I used to think I was, you know,

the only Eskimo on the ice patch, you know? Where

now, I feel like now I'm finally surrounded by

people. I love to see people who are stoked about

this animated Rodimus. Where there used to be

a time where I'd be the only one stoked about

a Power Lynx Hot Shot Rodimus homage. You know

what I mean? See, like we were mentioning earlier

about the fact that Rodimus is named Hot Shot

in the DS game, I don't like that. I see that

Rodimus, Hot Rod, and Hot Shot, they're two different

characters. Well, of course, although there's

a lot of confusions. Yeah, yeah. Because in Japan,

Armada, which was called Micron in Japan, for

that season they called him Hot Rod, but one

word, no space, Hot Rod. And then they realized

their mistake, so when they did Energon in Japan,

called Super Link, they called him Hot Shot to

fix that, because also... It's it's a lot of

confusion. There's there's name registering,

you know again when I was talking with Aaron

Archer about it It's it's it's a big confusing

thing and they really regret Not keeping hot

rod just like how they were so lucky They were

so lucky with bumblebee because they lost it.

They lost it hard and they got it back just before

the movie Yeah, very lucky Because they almost

lost Bumblebee forever. They're never gonna get

Ratchet back. They're never gonna get Hound back.

They're never gonna get a lot and Hot Rod right

now is registered with Hot Wheels. Alls I gotta

say about the uh... Alls I gotta say about the

name changes? Damn you Hot Wheels, you bastards.

Give us the name back! They s - You know what?

And I had this huge, huge, huge speculation too.

I remember when the 2007 movie came out. uh...

that same year because two thousand seven movie

with uh... michael bay dreamworks and the same

year dreamworks also had another movie that was

out around the same time starring andy sandberg

who's famous from uh... sorry not live and stuff

and he did a movie called hot rod and in that

movie hot rod where he was he was this kid who

did stunts and stuff jumping with his tis uh...

with his bike in comedy. In one scene, Andy Samberg,

he's planning out his stunt jump. Oh jeez. And

you know, that's me being a dumbass, you know

But at the same time like I was thinking that's

a possibility it could be I don't know Yeah,

because if they were able to secure the rights

to the name hot rod for this movie There is a

possibility that maybe at least for the movie

Appearance in the movie the character could be

named hot rod Yeah, where where the toys will

still be called hot shot Rodimus whatever the

hell they want to call it But at least in the

movie which in my opinion would be the most important

thing is at least in the movie He'd be called

hot rod now at BotCon 2010 this year You did

go now wasn't there also a Hot Wheels convention

going on in the same place? Oh, wow that that

is a joke all on itself. You know what I'm a

car guy I love my racing. I do it part -time.

I'm a mechanic. I do that full -time. I love

my cars. But let me tell you something. That

Hot Wheels Convention was a little bit depressing.

What they did was they offered the Hot Wheels

Convention, which is normally ran by... middle

-aged men and guys in their 70s. That's what

the convention is mainly. It's old school Hot

Wheels collectors. They offered all BotCon attendees

and they posted posters everywhere in Disney

saying, all BotCon attendees, you could come

to our convention for free. So, it was really

early in the morning. I think it was like 8 .30.

That's early BotCon time, because let me tell

you, everyone's passed out at that time. It was

8 .30 in the morning, and I was just like, hey,

why don't I go check out this Hot Wheels convention?

Because their dealer room was already open up.

So I went by it, and it was so depressing. It

really was. It was literally five dealer room

tables. It was five dealer room tables. It was

like... And one thing that I could give them

credit for, in the center of the convention,

they had a whole bunch of vintage cars. Redone,

beautiful quality. As a car guy, I really like

that. I guess for some listeners who would be

able to relate, the Ford GT, which was used for

Alternator Mirage, was there. in Mirage's colors

if you will like it was that exact Ford GT was

there you know there were some cars that were

recognizable even to a transformer fan but in

general it was like it was like a whole bunch

of dealer tables like at least like five or six

with a whole bunch of Hot Wheels toys mint on

card and then a whole bunch of real cars in the

center and that was it that was their convention

and no one was there maybe i was too early but

let me tell you something if BotCon's deal room

was open at 8 30 it'd be packed oh yeah you know

it'd be packed even at 8 30 but this you could

hear a pin drop you know And you know what? I

don't want to hate on them, because in all honesty,

I could understand the love of collecting. My

father collects die -cast cars, but he's also

a guy in his 60s, so it's kind of sad when you

think about it, but it's true. It was just a

bunch of old dudes trying to get a bunch of young

dudes into their thing. It was nice that they

invited us for free. It was cool to do a quick

look around. You know, we were there all the

way in Disney for Vakon, not to look at some

1x64s. You know what? We have die -cast cars

too. Yeah. Now me personally, and this is just

my own personal opinion, where Transformers cuts

off for me is Rebirth. Well, for a lot of people

it is. That's just the way it is, I've never,

I cannot watch dubs. I acknowledge Rebirth, while

I acknowledge it completely. In my opinion, in

my continuity, I go by G1 Japan. Meaning that

when Return of Optimus Prime Part 2 ends, we

jump straight into the Headmasters. uh... continuity

uh... as in the japanese tb series reverse in

my opinion never happened uh... well i like uh...

headmasters i'd not of like you know as i like

why i said before that i really love the marvel

comic books run of the series i'm not a big fan

in general of headmasters uh... being humans

It's it's very hard for me to wrap my wrap around

that cause at least the initial ones I don't

mind headmasters being humans in Master Force

as they're used because the whole theme of Master

Force is humans and robots So it kind of works

I mean for me to hate the headmaster humans would

be for being the hate the headmaster God masters

and for me to hate the the pretender shells and

hate everyone I mean, and you know this, but

the whole point of rebirth and having the headmasters

as humans and that is because only organic life

can shut down the plasma energy chamber. Jesus

Christ, I almost forgot what the hell the damn

thing was called. But yeah, I... Alright, so

after the movie's over, Rodimus is the leader.

We go into Season 3 and then into Rebirth, at

least for the US version. What did you think

of his role throughout that? And more importantly,

what do you think of the fact that they just

kind of basically brushed him aside once Return

of Optimus Prime happens? Oh, of course. You

know what? The first thing that bothered me was

Rebirth more than anything, and I want everyone

to go back and watch all three episodes. You

know what? When you bring back Optimus Prime,

how about you paint his helmet correctly the

entire series? Well, now we gotta bring this

up. Unfortunately, Rebirth was done by some poor

Canadian animators. Yeah, apparently, but also

because Nelson Shin also hired his Korean crew

to do some of the coloring so it was a lot of

It was it was it was a disaster like that's the

problem That's also why season 3 had a lot of

hit -or -miss quality episodes was that after

the movie Nelson Shin because They felt wow Nelson

Shin did a really good job with the movie We

should stick with his studio what he didn't tell

everyone else's shit is that when he does movie

production stuff it's really good quality when

he does television production stuff insured story

nelson shin is responsible for the simpsons now

the simpsons is all fine and dandy for the simpsons

but not for transformers so you know what i mean

but like the simpsons we watch we go since it's

not too bad yeah for the simpson's but if we

had the simpson's animation for transformers

we have more people complaining about that than

when the animated designs came out you know i

a like i would go like you know and that's why

season three you would have some of the shows

that looked good you have some episodes that

looked horrible uh... specifically the episode

of call of the primitives i was done by a japanese

studio cult away and a lot of people know this

but call the primitives that specific episode

Now, I have I do have the Matrix set now. Before

that, obviously, the only thing we really had

was the Rhino DVD sets, which, as we all know,

the Rhino sets kind of suck. However, when I

did, when I first started podcasting and I did

the TFG1 podcast, which was a review of the entire

U .S. run, including the 20th anniversary DVD

of the film, one of the biggest issues I had

was Rodimus in Season 3. They couldn't decide

which fucking color scheme they were gonna use

for him. In some episodes, in some episodes it's

the movie design, and in some episodes it's the

design he has in season 3 of the darker red and

everything else, and that just kinda pissed me

off. Oh, well see, but you have to realize, that's

just season 3 in general. I mean, we could complain

about Rodimus, but there was tons of other characters

that suffered from similar issues. You have to,

like, season 3 was a mess. I'm not saying story

-wise, but I'm saying in terms of production.

It really was. There was, you know, you would

have, like, oh god, like, scale issues that were,

like you would have Bruticus standing next to

Soundwave. Like who was on the production team

at that time when they were doing that? It was

the best. It really was. We got some really good

stories here and there out of it, some really

good stuff that fleshed out characters. But another

thing that bothered me was that while Takara

was kind of behind the helm of some of the designs

and the fiction from a written standpoint, being

the mangas and the story pages, A lot of the

other stuff really couldn't establish who was

the leader. I remember I was having a discussion

with my good buddy TFCon staff member GMFan.

He's a huge, huge Ultra Magnus fan. He really

likes Ultra Magnus. I even agreed with him. I'm

like, you know what? When you kind of count the

episodes, how many times have Optimus Prime not

showed up in a G1 episode back in Season 1 and

2? Only once and that was King Arthur Decepticons

in King Arthur's court that was the only episode

ever where Optimus Prime didn't show up in Rodimus

his short stint in season 3 he doesn't show up

in half of them and then ultra Magnus takes the

leader role instead so there was almost this

point where The writers kind of forgot who the

leader was yeah, and when you're trying to sell

a new product You know you're trying to sell

this this new toy line You know what I mean?

And sell the new leader that you just killed

off the old leader for. You gotta put him in

some episodes. You gotta make the kids want him.

You already told the kids with the movie, Ultra

Magnus, bad. Don't put him in his place now in

a whole bunch of episodes. It's the finger holes,

Ultra Magnus. Just use the finger holes. Robert

Stack, this is why you... Now, do you acknowledge

the Unicron trilogy at all? I, you know what,

and I always tell people this, watch in Japanese

before you judge. The Unicron Trilogy, I will

agree with everyone, like I said before. Energon,

I've watched, I watched first of all Super Link.

I watched it in Japanese, subtitled everything,

and then I went and I watched Energon. And let

me tell you something, everyone who's watched

Energon and passed Judgement, go back and watch

Super Link. A lot of people who hate on Kicker.

who don't like him. I think that part of that

is going to come from the fact that Matt Hill

is voicing him and does a very poor job. Kicker,

how he's depicted in Super Link. Is incredible.

He's like this badass character who kills the

septicons in the English dub version He's just

this whiny kid and Matt Hill's voice is very

whiny and Matt Hill Prior to doing kicker did

one of the kids from Armada. He did Carlos So

he went from doing the whiny Mexican kids and

now the whiny kid with the energon saber So like

it's it's that's what kind of like sucks is that

a lot of people they passed same thing Cybertron

I love, I love, love, love Galaxy Force, which

is what Cybertron came from. I think it's one

of the really good Transformer serieses. But

people have seen Cybertron. And Cybertron is

a fucking mess. It is. It really is. Because

Cartoon Network was behind a lot of the choices.

Oh, here's a character in Galaxy Force that's

a male. Let's make it female. Now we just screwed

everything up. Now there's characters that look

like they're lesbians. Because Nitro Convoy,

who was an awesome male character, who was a

race car driver and everything, there's this

one scene where Laurie, one of the human characters,

makes him blush. Because where he goes, oh, you

want me to drive you around? He's like, no, that's

fine. I'll go, so. And then he blushes, right?

They left that scene in, and now Nitro Convoy

is a girl. So why is, you know, there's just,

there's so many, like, little things that just

shouldn't have happened. I guess I love the gal

all of those unicorn trilogy stuff before you

pass judgment watch the Japanese interpretations

I At TF con 2009. I did a panel About the difference

between armada and micron which is what our what

our motto was in Japan and let me tell you something

It changed a lot of people's opinions our motto

when it came out here. It was test reels At TFCon,

I did a whole panel about the differences between

Micron and Armada, like Micron, which is what

Armada is in Japan, and it really turned people's

heads around about what was the big differences.

What we got here in America that was Armada was

actually test reels. It was just a decision by

Cartoon Network because the series that came

prior to Armada was Robots in Disguise. And Robots

in Disguise was on Fox. And Fox paid a lot of

money to get the exclusive rights to play these

episodes. But they bombed. They didn't get good

ratings. Now, why didn't they get good ratings?

Robots in Disguise debuted. During the beginning

of the anime download fat that the internet started

and TFW before TFW became the huge website it

was today It was the first place to get episodes

of car robots the Japanese version of armada

Excuse me Japanese version of car rope of robots

in disguise. So Everyone when that first episode

of robots in disguise came out. We were already

finished Car robots we were the series was done.

We've seen it all So no one tuned in. No one

watched it, because we already saw it in Japanese.

If you saw it in Japanese, why would you watch

the dub? Why would you even wake up for it? So

no one watched it, and no one cared, and the

ratings were horrible. So Cartoon Network, being

scared of Fox's mistake, tried to capitalize

on that and said, okay, here's what we're going

to do. We're going to get whatever you guys got

done. give it to us, we got to put it out right

away. So we got these unfinished, unedited versions

of it. And right down to the scripts not even

being finished. There was episodes where Starscream

was calling his mini -con by his Japanese name

instead of his American name. Swindle was actually

called Grid. in Japan and he called them grid

twice they couldn't make up their minds with

leader one and spark plug like they couldn't

make up their minds with a lot of different characters

because they were called by their Japanese names

or misinterpreted Japanese translations because

spark plug was called prime and prime means one

and one is leader one it was very confusing and

it led to our motto looking like a piece of crap

What I did was I did side -by -side comparisons

of the same episode. running alongside each other.

And you would see the different, the cells were

different, the scenes were different. There'd

be one scene where it's a shot of Red Alert's

face and it looks horrible. And then you'll have

the next, and then you'll have the Japanese version,

that same scene down to the same second. And

it's that same scene, it's a shot of Red Alert's

face, but now it's like super nicely shaded and

like it's glistening and they articulated like

his visor better. And it's like, what the hell

happened? They gave us the early demo reels,

the test reels. And we put that out there. That's

why a lot of people are like, ugh, Armada. Yeah,

but that's because we got crap. What happened

was afterwards, when we got Energon, it already

ran its course in Japan. It finished its course

in Japan as Super Link. And then when we got

it as Energon, they did it the other way around

now. Now we got the series after. But instead

what they did, they edited it up like crazy.

Like crazy, they cut out a ton of scenes. There's

a scene where you have Rodimus Prime leading

an army of Autobots, and if you look in the background,

there's G -1 Bumblebee. There's, what do you

call it? I was about to say his Japanese name,

Atoms, Cosmos. But they cut that scene out completely.

They cut out a bunch of scenes. There's one scene

where Kicker is getting chased by Ironhide, or

Road Busters as he's called in Japan. Uh, he's

getting chased by iron hide in vehicle mode.

They cut that out completely. Oh, we don't want

like, you know, kids running after cars or something.

Who knows what the reasoning behind it was. But

there was a lot of censorship that went on that.

And then with Cybertrot, it's just trying to

shoehorn all kinds of stories and convoluted

things and accents. You know, it's funny because

here's a funny, like a really funny thing. Scott

McNeil told us this story. Scott McNeil did the

voice of Jetfire for Armada and Energon. When

they did Cybertron, Scott McNeil was like, well,

I guess I'm going to do Jetfire for this one

too, right? It's the same character. And they

said, no, this time around we want Jetfire to

have an Australian accent. And then Scott walked

out of that and he's like, oh, OK, that's weird.

Wait a minute, I'm Australian! Scott McNeil is

born Australian, even though he lives in Canada.

He's Australian. Apparently, he's not Australian

enough to play an Australian. A role that he

did for three years got rejected by the fact

that he wasn't Australian enough. It was, you

know, there's a lot of weird things going on

with Cybertron. I really, like, I own all the

box sets of both versions just to keep for archival

purposes to show as comparison to people. Like,

don't watch this. It's bad. It really is. It

really is. You have to realize, Super Link...

had the five hundredth episode of transformers

which was the special like homage to like past

continuities everything like a big dream action

of what if battles you know what if uh... rotis

prime fought optimist prime who would win that

whole episode was cut up and ruined in america

really slightly because because they felt well

obviously the the listeners wouldn't by listeners

the viewers wouldn't get it They wouldn't understand

it, but that's just it. My rule of thumb, and

I'm not just trying to be someone who's pro -Japanese

here because I'll go on the other side of the

spectrum, the rule of thumb is whatever it comes

out in in its original language, you watch it

in that language. G1 was English. It was done

by Sun, you know, by Marvel. SunBow, yeah. Yeah,

SunBow and Marvel. So you watch it in English.

Beast Wars was done in Canada. That's English.

You watch in English. Beast Wars was dubbed in

Japanese. If you've ever heard the Japanese dub

of Beast Wars, you'll vomit all over yourself.

It's probably one of the worst things ever. They

added so much stupidity that it took the entire

seriousness out of the show. Like Transmetal

2 Dinobot has this penchant for singing. I don't

even want to get into that. Let's talk about

Beast Wars just for a bit, only because, and

I know you mentioned this earlier in the show,

about all the comparisons of Cheetor to Rodimus.

Now, me myself, Rodimus or Hot Rod, or you know,

like I said, whatever, if we're going movie continuity,

Hot Rod into Rodimus, he had to grow up fairly

quickly. I would say... Say instantly. Well,

right, but I mean, like, over the course of the

film, I would say the Hot Rod portion of him

is maybe 1415, if that, and the Rodimus part

is maybe 2021, if that, somewhere around there.

Now, me myself, I'm a huge Cheetor fan. I love

Cheetor. And one of the reasons why I love Cheetor

is because he is Rodimus of Beast Wars. Of course.

i don't know what you know and some people may

say what the hell you talking about well if you

look at your from the stores parts one into the

very first the first two part of the so that

open series he's very young until he gets transmittal

one so i actually broke this down i would say

he's maybe twelve all of you know uh... how i

go by well only a whole lot i would say uh...

you know i i broke this down into the That I

could agree with more. that I could be because

how it works is I work on the physical too um

when he when he's in his first form the original

Cheetor he has the freckles he's the kid you

know the freckles represent you know youth adolescence

he's the kid of the crew um when he's in his

transmetal one now he has a goatee now he's growing

the the dirty facial hair you know what I mean

yeah um and that kind of represents you know

the coming of age the puberty if you will you

know um and then when you have uh the Transmetal

2, now he's kind of ending his later teen years.

He's more rebellious, you know. Now he's noticing

girls and he's hitting on them, you know. I mean,

even the quote Cheetor, oh, cyber puberty, you

know, like even use that, not Cheetor, a rat

trap, you know, points that line. And, you know,

he became all this, like, this badass character,

you know, kind of going through those late teen

rebellious era. And then by the time you have

Beast Machines, hell, he's the leader. Yeah.

He's the leader. He's on the packaging of every

toy of Beast Machines. Yeah, there was no, and

I hate to put it this way, but I always have

to use this. There was no MacGuffin or plot device

known as the Matrix of Leadership that glowed

and said, oh, T -Dor is going to be the leader

at the end of Beast Machines. He grew into that

role. Oh, of course, if anything, he took the

role from Optimus Primal when he felt he wasn't

fit. Yep. And it worked great. It really did.

And that's one thing that I think when people

hate on Beast Machines about how the characters

were handled, I could agree with a majority of

it. But Cheetor was handled properly. Cheetor

was handled properly from start to finish. That

character had growth. across the entire spectrum.

He went from the snot -nosed kid who just wanted

to be something great one day, you know, I'll

help you big bot, you know, to like, you know,

now he doesn't even, he thinks that big bot isn't

even capable of leadership and he should be in

charge. And he was completely grown by then.

That's why I kind of... wish trance tech actually

came to fruition in its original carnation not

what the club gave us yeah uh... so i could have

saw where she or what it went from there uh...

i uh... holes in the same uh... so we have when

when steven i interviewed mystery and james corlett

uh... i lucky you can see sees he's a voice actor

uh... i love not just for uh... Cheetor but for

Mega Man and a lot of others Goku. Yep. Yeah

when we interviewed him for beast unleashed and

and and every other show that we put the interview

out on I I Was very surprised because you know

how like all right take Peter Cullen Obviously

the optimist prime voice is not his everyday

voice Okay Now Ian I had never heard him use

a normal voice. I've only heard him in Cheetor

and some other stuff that he's done. So I was

kind of curious what Ian Quillette's real voice

would sound like. And holy crap, he's Cheetor.

And I said that in the interview. He goes, yeah,

I know. And I was like, well, dude, and I pointed

out Barry Gordon, because Barry Gordon, who is

Donatello, you know that's his voice that he's

not changing his way it's like frank welker the

you know or or or mel blank the people of a thousand

voices that is their voice and i was very surprised

that uh... and it was like i would carry chalk

also yeah yeah kinda like him as well and it

was just super awesome to talk to him uh... he

actually did all of the senate to you even though

it's it's specific to our podcast he actually

did a a clip of With dr. Wiley for us for for

a tune cast. I love I love Scott McNeil I just

have to say like Scott McNeil because yeah, it's

true stomach you mean and James Corlett Yeah,

well though because Scott McNeil did dr. Wiley

in the Megaman cartoon although maybe Ian did

in did him in Captain and Oh Captain and excuse

me. Okay, we're at the top of the Ruby spheres.

Oh, yeah, that's possible. That is true. Yeah

Cuz Captain N was pretty much Beast Wars cast

it was uh Well before Beast Wars because you

had Gary as King Hippo. Yeah But um, but there's

such clear definitions between Rodimus and Cheetor

there so are and I actually can as much as people

don't like rebirth or deny rebirth if you take

rebirth and you take the three parts that end

beast machines they're pretty much the same episodes

well if you look at them as well well what i

mean is as far it it's mainly part three of rebirth

and and part three um end game of of beast machines

because the whole planet reformats granted in

rebirth you have a golden age and not a flower

age but you know that whole thing is Is very

similar to it as far as my opinion of it is So

now we're gonna delve into Rodimus's merchandise

now this is going to be very lengthy I need to

ask you before we start in the list You had mentioned

to me. Oh god months ago about an auction that

you were trying to win for a Rodimus bottle of

shampoo. Yes, I did. Did you ever win it? Yes,

I did. Did it actually have shampoo in it? Yes,

it did. Oh Christ! And not to mention does it

still have shampoo. It still has the safety seal.

Oh my god. So it is the actual shampoo. And I

don't want to open it. No, I wouldn't open it

either. It's shampoo from Japan from 1986. Oh

my god. I'm so glad it's not acidic Exactly,

you know, I'm glad it's probably just some very

mild baby shampoo or something. I don't know

but it's you know, what I didn't buy it for the

shampoo though Obviously a bottle is absolutely

incredible and not to mention This is a piece

of merchandise that you know toys get kept shampoo

bottles. They get thrown out You know, so that's

something that the fact that I got it in that

form Outstanding, you know and That's as you

were asking before to ride and what are some

of his holy grails? That's kind of one of those

That's definitely yeah, I I kind of figured it

was because you told me it was The other holy

grail that I know that you had mentioned was

it was was it a PVC figure of him? Oh the super

hybrid super hybrid. That's what it was. Yeah

That's another one that's like, it's not even

a matter of money. You could be as rich as Bill

Gates and you will never get a chance to get

this figure. The super hybrid collection was

a collection of figures made in 1987 that Takara

at the time was planning that would be super

show accurate. PVC figures that were about I

would say 12 inches tall not 12 inches. That's

too much. I would say like I would say like eight

nine inches and They were of RC which never got

a toy Galvatron which had a toy that didn't look

anything like his show counterpart and Rodimus

Prime which they felt was completely out of scale

with that horrible looking Galvatron so they

also wanted to give them something that was more

appropriate So they made these three vinyl figures.

One of the big problems why these figures never

ended up coming out was they discovered that

the vinyl that they used was very bad with heat.

Back in 1987, Takara's factories did have extremely

expensive air conditioning going on. All the

products melted like crazy and got destroyed.

They ended up canceling their orders from the

factory and discontinuing the line. But what

ended up happening as a result was that a few

of those better condition figures got out into

the market instead of being thrown out in the

garbage and destroyed. To this moment, there's

only four or five known in existence of superhybrid

rotimus. Now, that being said... You have three

of them. No, I wish. what is the chances of it

coming up uh... purchase like first off what

are the chances of it you know how much it's

worth is one thing that you can even think of

a number but what are the chances of you getting

that opportunity to even buy it now that's what

i'm saying like even if you're as rich as bill

gates what if how would you be able to get that

you know what i mean lucky for me i have a very

good friend in japan named hydra and hydra is

an awesome guy uh... I see him every BotCon.

I've known him for years and years and years

on ATT back in 1995 when the internet first was

getting hot with Transformers. And he always

has his ear to the floor at Akihabara in Japan

looking for stuff from me. It came up. And it

was pretty much a blank check. I pretty much

told them, whatever it is, I'll pay it. Now,

would you say this... out of everything rodimus

that you have, out of toys, collectibles, lithographs,

prints, comic books, would you say that this

one thing is the most you've ever paid? Yes,

easily. With the exception of a car, it's the

most I've ever purchased on a single piece of

item of anything ever. And the exception of my

house. Easily and I will admit it was four digits.

That's all I'm gonna say Wow That's all I'm gonna

say but This was something where if I said I'll

think about it. It'd be too late Oh something

that if I this was something if I said, oh I'll

wait and or I'll get it cheaper later. That's

not gonna happen Yeah, you know, it's one of

those things where you either you bid on Mona

Lisa now or you lose out forever for the rest

of your life exactly and so you know what were

the and again i went to balkan i didn't see no

fucking you know super rare bullshit going like

it's it's never going to come up it'll never

be on ebay it'll never be on yahoo japan auctions

it'll never be at balkan unless some guy who's

one of the four that owns the sites to bring

it But it's just one of those things that will

just never it's like what what what are the chances

that you'll be able to buy the prototype? Oh,

yeah It's like what like it's it's not even a

matter of the money But what are the chances

that it would pop up on eBay? What are the chances

that you'd be able to to bid on it? What are

the chances that you'd win the bid? You know,

it's it's just it's all those factors that went

through my head and it was just like, you know

what? Money money comes and goes but chances

like that like that are once -in -a -lifetime

and You know, like what's a thousand dollars

thousand dollars is nothing. It really is and

when you when I really thought about it It's

nothing it really is it's no time of work for

me So, you know to some people a thousand dollars.

Well, what are you crazy? But you know what some

people went out and bought a $700 PlayStation.

Yeah, you know, yeah, but you know, but you know

what a lot of people have those playstations

now, you know but how many people have a super

hybrid Rodimus. I kind of took those many perspectives

before I gave the OK. What would you say out

of your entire Rodimus collection is your most

prized possession? Aside from that, I would have

to say maybe my first Rodimus figure would kind

of have a sentimental value because after I got

that first Rodimus and I got that like... I think

it was 1998. I got it at a toy show. This is

before eBay. eBay, I think, got really hot in

1999 or the end of 1998. I think the guy was

asking $60 and it was complete. Let's just say

he got that 60 bucks, no problem. And obviously

in retrospective, obviously I overpaid, but you

know what? I overpaid in your perspective in

a time now that there's tons of reissues of G1

Rodimus. There's tons of, you know, chances to

get this character, whether it be in America,

or in Japan, or God knows what the future will

bring us of more G1 issues of Rodimus. Back then...

You know, we didn't have eBay, the internet was

still kind of getting into that whole marketplace

kind of thing. What are the chances that you're

gonna get a dead mint G1 complete hot rod character?

So I easily, and it came with the instructions,

didn't come with the tech spec, but it came with

the instructions, both guns and it was pretty

good condition. So 60 bucks, it was worth it.

And you have to realize, in 1998, I was still

in high school, so 60 bucks wasn't easy to come

by. That was allowance for quite some time, but

it was worth it. To me, after I got that figure,

that thing got transformed just like Drew said

a million times, I transformed that one a million

times. I brought that back home and I literally

re -watched because I had the original 86 movie

on VHS. I re -watched the movie with that in

hand. At that time, I didn't own any other Rodimus

figures. That was my first Rodimus anything.

That made all the difference. It really did like

it was just that that just started, you know

the chain effect from that point on and I think

it does I'm looking at it right now. I keep that

one specifically in vehicle mode and It's on

my Rodimus display case. Although my new one

is gonna be a lot bigger I'm moving so but I

still have my Rodimus display case up and I'm

looking at it like that's that's one of my prize

figures because it has a very Sentimental value

that in my blaster, which was my first transport.

Yeah Alright, so Really quick rundown I guess

from G1 to I'll go I'll go by year and then I'll

go I'll go by year and I'll go by continuity.

Okay? Okay, so For all you Rodimus collectors

there. Here's the definitive list Although I'm

not going to include that new stuff that hasn't

come out that hasn't come out yet But this is

everything that's out right now. That's somewhere

out there that you could possibly get Here it

comes. Okay, 1986 g1 hot rod metal feet 1986

g1 hot rod plastic feet There was actually a

variation between the two hot rods some came

with plastic feet some came with metal feet And

then the same thing like I said with Drew some

in Canada came with a different tech spec that

said Canadian boy 1986 Rodimus Prime metal feet

1986 Rodimus Prime plastic feet same story metal

feet plastic feet 1987 Hot Rodimus, which is

the Japanese version of Hot Rod, no difference,

but it only came in plastic feet. 1987 Rodimus

Convoy Transformers 2010, same thing, the Japanese

version of our version, only came in plastic

feet. 1987 Transformers 2010 Rodimus Convoy Jr.

This was a smaller dumbed down version of the

Rodimus Prime toy that only came out in Japan

in 1987. He came actually with a cardboard trailer.

A pretty cool toy actually. 1987 Kabaya Hot Rodimus.

This was a candy toy model kit of Hot Rod that

existed in Japan that was blind packed. 1987

Kabaya Rodimus Convoy. Same story but now Rodimus

Prime. This one actually has been bootlegged

a few times and could be found on eBay right

now. Like done in really bad colors and stuff.

1987 Targetmaster Hot Rod. Metal feet, 1987 Targetmaster

Hot Rod plastic feet, and then 1987 Targetmaster

Hot Rod mint and box, but with the mislabeled

packaging. Instead of it saying fire bolt, it

said misfire. Which was written on the box instead

and there's that's that come that's actually

very common. It's not that it's rare It's just

that there's two versions of the box and they're

in equal numbers out there Then you have 1987

Rodimus convoy versus Galvatron PVC pack they

did a like almost action master sized Rodimus

and Galvatron PVC that were non -transformable.

1987 Transformers 2010 Rodimus Convoy decoys.

Now the decoys that came out in America only

came in purple and red and were numbered, and

they were only 84, 85 characters. In Japan, they

kept going, and they came in different sizes,

and they came in many different colors. So Rodimus

came in red, blue, and yellow. Then, they did

the large decoys, and Rodimus came in red and

green, and it was a different mold completely,

but it was also Rodimus. 1987, Transformers 2010,

Rodimus Convoy, shampoo bottle. Which I just

established before. Then, 1987, Transformers,

Rodimus Convoy, super hybrid collection figure.

This toy was cancelled, only four in existence

that are known. 1987 Transformers Headmasters,

this is the new series, Rodimus Convoy PVC Pack

with Chromedome Jr. It was that same PVC Rodimus

figure from 1987 that came with Galvatron, but

this time he was packed with the new, like, hot

-headed leader character, Chromedome. But this

was Chromedome Jr., so it's a dumbed -down version

of the G1 Chromedome toy, made smaller. 1988

Kabaya SD Rodimus Convoy. uh... kabaya released

a line called the pd collection which was these

little qt cd form model kits of different auto

box of the car leaders and so they uh... they

made a raucous convoy Then we had 1988 Kabaya

Rodimus Convoy Photon Eliminator. What the PD

line did also, which was really cool, and this

is actually a very awesome thing a lot of people

don't know about, was they actually released

replicas of the leader's guns. So you had Rodimus,

Megazarek, God Ginrai, and Star Saber, Victory

Saber, excuse me. They had these little guns

that threw... pellets, but they were all molded

after the different guns of the different leaders.

So, Rodimus' famous photon eliminator was remade

in this series. In 1990, we got Battlestar's

Star Convoy, which came with Micromaster Hot

Rodimus. So, 2 % of that toy is worth buying,

in my case, because it came with the first ever

Micromaster Hot Rod, and to this day, the only

Micromaster based off of a G1 character. previous

existing G1 character. While other MicroMasters

have upgraded throughout the years like Big Daddy

and so on, Hot Rod was the only one to be the

other way around. 1991 MC Axis Hot Rod Resin

Model Kit. This was the model kit we were talking

about with Drew Iden before. It's a resin model

kit that you could customize in any way you choose

of different Rodimus poses and designs. Now we're

going to move on to merchandising of other stuff

of G1. So we have the 1986 Hot Rod folder. It

was a folder that hold paper used for kids. There

was a 1986 Hot Rod bed sheet and pillowcase.

I have these actually. They came out in the UK

and it was a bed sheet cover and a pillowcase

cover of Hot Rod's box art. I bet Chun -Li is

really thrilled at that. It's not on the bed.

I just keep it folded safely elsewhere. Chun

-Li referring to my wife of course. 1987 Rodimus

Prime puncher bopper this only came out in the

UK and Mexico You know those like blow up things

where you it has sand at the bottom you punch

in it bobs around and comes back at you Yeah,

they made one of different characters in the

UK and Mexico and so I have the Rodimus Prime

one 1986 random stickers from the Transformers

there was um Back in the day, in the 80s and

the early 90s, there used to be these sticker

books that you would buy packs. I think it was

called Panini. I forget what the company was

called. And you would buy stickers and you would

stick them in a book where it would predetermine

the areas that you would stick the stickers related

to stories or whatever. So Panini did the original

86 Transformer movie. And so there's a whole

bunch of hot rod stickers related to that. Then,

of course, you have all the random Marvel books

that have Hot Rod on the cover, and same thing

with Lady Bird that range between 1986 and 1988.

Now we move to modern stuff, because then you

have the big gap of no Rodimus stuff. So you

move to the modern stuff. The first ever new

Rodimus thing was in the year 2000, we got G1

issue Hot Rodimus from Japan. And then on top

of that, they did the G1 reissue e -hobby exclusive

Black Hot Rodimus and Clear Hot Rodimus, which

were, I think, the only 1 ,500 that exist of

each. then they did in two thousand one uh...

the reissue of rodimus convoy so doing the g

one rodimus prime now rodimus convoy in japan

then they had a plan to do a lucky draw exclusive

black rodimus convoy campaign figure it got canceled

i've seen some pop up on ebay but i've heard

things that they could be a fake or not so i'm

still out on that one In 2001, we also had the

SCF PVC collection. Starting with Act 2, we got

Rodimus Convoy in color and in clear. Then we

also, in Act 2, had the chase figure Rodimus

Convoy with the Matrix of Leadership, but done

in a clear translucent plastic in color. In 2001,

we also got the Mega PVC Hot Rod and Rodimus

Convoy. Two separate figures articulated they

came with the matrix different changeable guns

really cool figures actually for its time in

2002 we got the chrono Q Rodimus convoy Which

was this little Rodimus figure that was like

stout and it transformed that it had a pullback

feature and it came in cartoon colors and it

came in also Like I guess you could call them

a metallic version if you yeah in 2003 uh...

continuing them the s t f uh... s uh... c f line

of pvc's you've got rodimus convoy with the matrix

in color and imputer in act four so now he wasn't

just a chase figure of super expensive in two

thousand three we also got the bike on rodimus

convoy figure which was an s t figure that was

articulated you could change the arms and legs

with all the other michael's in two thousand

three we also had superlink rodimus convoy which

is known as Enter John here, but he came out

in Super Link first. He had different paint application.

He actually has more paint than the American

version. He had more flames on the spoiler and

everything, which is pretty cool. There also

was an exclusive Super Link Black Rodimus Convoy

and a Super Link Lucky Draw Rodimus Convoy, which

both came in silver and gold. The gold one being

1 in 20 made and the silver one being 1 in 10

made. I have these. And I paid a lot. And then,

of course, later in 2003, Energon Rodimus came

out, so then we finally got that toy over here

stateside. He only came in one variation, which

was a packaging variation. He came in a blue

packaging, which is the one that we're more similar

with, the bluish -black one. And then when they

did the Power Link battles, we had the red packaging,

and there was Erotimus in the red packaging.

So that's the only variant that I know of that

exists. Then we have Transformers Super Link

Kabaya Combiner. these were these untransformable

figures that you can make different combinations

of superlinking powerlinking and so you had the

Rodimus Inferno 2 -pack which came with the top

of Rodimus and the bottom of Inferno. If you

bought Inferno's set you got the top of Inferno

and the bottom of Rotomus so you were able to

have like a full Rotomus I guess. It was just

so you could do because you know like with Super

Link and Energon you could do all the different

combinations. Yeah I don't really like that too.

I've never really liked Super Link or you know

the whole linking thing but it reminds me too

much of Power Rangers and I know that's bad.

Well more so the Optimus. Then we go into 2004,

continuing with the PVCs. We got the SCF PVC

Act 6 Hot Rodimus with shades. So this time we

had a PVC based off of the Hot Rod interpretation

with his shades when he was looking up at the

shuttle being captured by the Decepticons. And

this came in color and in pewter. In 2005, Hard

Heroes made the Hot Rod bust, which was, I believe,

one in three thousand made. I have to look under

my bust because I know they're all numbered.

Then in 2006 we have the Attactix Energon Rodimus

This was based on the Energon design and it came

in both the matte Black stands and then you have

the rare chrome stands. There's two versions

of that In 2006, we also had the G1 reissue of

Star Convoy with Hot Rodimus, obviously, the

Micromaster. But the little change this time

was originally the Micromaster Rodimus had to

have the stickers applied. These ones were painted

on, so it looks a lot nicer. Because now the

spoiler is completely yellow instead of just

being a sticker that will peel off like nothing.

In 2006, we also had the G1 Kabaya set of...

hot rod rc devastated this was the reenactment

of devastated a ripping into auto box city with

hot rod and rc watching in fear this was part

of that set there that came with the optimist

prime bust and that creepy uh... i chan being

watched by uh... optimist problem r i d optimist

prime that we're going to set their uh... thousand

seven we got robot heroes optimist uh... robert

heros optimist prime bite my tongue robot heroes

hot rod with shrapnel Although, I believe he

was called Rodimus and Insecticon. Yeah, they

are. I just put the actual names, not the literal

names. In 2007, we also got the Transformers

Rodimus Prime headbust, which was just the head

of Rodimus done in pewter and fully colored.

They did a Galvatron to accompany that, done

in a really nice style. I think they were even

being sold at Toys R Us at one point in the States.

I know in America, I had to buy it from a specialty

store from Canada. In 2007 we also got Classics

Rodimus. It was the first ever release of that.

And then KB Toys had their own spin on it. They

had the value pack which came with Starscream.

So you had this big card and it came with Classics

Rodimus and Starscream. This was a KB Toys exclusive.

in two thousand seven we also have the unicorn

movie statue which came with a hot rod holding

up the matrix to oppose him and rc and daniel

at the uh... exodus and uh... in the uh... uh...

croissants are all around it on the at all the

pace you have no idea how much i want that every

time i go to entertainers dot com and look at

that they only have the non -mint version in

stock and it's like all hundred and sixty four

yeah colors before I managed to get it really

cheap I remember I used to go to the store that

had it too and the matrix was broken and they

were still asking $199 oh my god so I was just

like yeah okay guys you know like at least throw

off at least throw off 50 bucks or something

but no anyways that thing's really expensive

but it's really nice piece though it's huge it's

like really big so then in 2008 we got the titanium

series so now we had titanium's hot rod and he

came with a little non -transformable firebolt,

because it was kind of the target master hot

rod. He came in two variants. In Canada, he came

with a very bland packaging, and in America,

he got this really nice, like, you know, unique

packaging with hot rods face on it. There was

also a planned dark Rodimus, which would be a

black repaint of it, but it got cancelled. It

was only shown at BotCon 2008. Excuse me, 2009.

In 2008, we also had the 6 -inch Rodimus Prime.

That was the Transformable Titanium. That came

in three different box variants. It has the bland

Canadian one which has the like kind of blackish

gray sides. We had the unique American packaging

which had the flames on the side of Rodimus.

And then we had a red packaging which was kind

of like shared with the... RID Optimus Prime

and Scourge that came, which was also a Canadian

thing and in Mexico. In 2008 we also had Alternators

Rodimus, which was a San Diego Comic -Con exclusive.

The only other thing I could say about this is

be careful because there is a knockoff of this

figure out there. And the knockoff is dead on

perfect, accurate in terms of quality and plastic,

except for one thing that's noticeable. Where

it says 4GT on the side of the figure, because

you will not be able to tell when it's minted

package, the 4GT is very faded. It's not a solid

tempo graph. It's actually faded and badly put

on. That's how you can tell the difference. The

only other way to tell the difference is the

type set on the bottom of the box, because the

alternators are like the bubble packaging. where

it gives this quote, in the real version, it's

done in a normal font, in the fake versions,

it's done in a bold. But again, I can't tell

that to you who's standing in a store and you

don't have something to compare, so. Well, maybe

they'll have this episode of Toycast on their

iPods. To notice, yeah. Yeah, and I don't know

how many other things in 2008 there are, but

I do have to mention, oh my god, Chatter and

Glacier Otomus, holy crap. Oh, we're getting

to that. That's actually the end of 2008. Oh,

good, good, good. In 2008, we also, because we

got that Alternator Rodimus, we also got Kiss

Play Hot Rodimus, which was the one that came

with the little Xiao Xiao figure and the DVD.

But what's good about this one is it's more,

it looks more like a real 4GT. It doesn't have

the flame on it. So if you're someone who really

likes his real cars, it's really nice. It also

came with the fishing pole that Hot Rod likes

to go fishing. It actually transforms a fishing

pole into a triple -barreled gun that goes on

his wrist, because the actual alternator toy

didn't have his triple -barrel wrists. So this

was a nice little touch to make that happen.

Now, don't you wish you had a transforming fishing

pole? Maybe. Maybe another thing to buy, though.

Then we had the transformer... collectible card

game, which had these little cards that you would

punch out puzzle pieces of a figure, and you

would be able to assemble these figures. So you

had the Energon Wars card set, and there was

a Rodimus of it. And that was based off of the

San Diego Comic Con design. In 2008, we also

had Metalverse Hot Rodimus. This was just a statue

of Hot Rod done in a soft vinyl plastic that

looks a lot like his cartoon interpretation.

And I think it's very beautiful. And at one point,

this toy was $80 when it was new. And then it

went on clearance on Hobby Links Japan for like

20 bucks. And a lot of people jumped on it. It's

a really nice figure. Yeah, I bet it is. Okay,

and then the last one of 2008 was BotCon's Shattered

Glass Rodimus. And, well, I guess we'll talk

about that one. Oh, God. I love this one because,

first of all, it's my only black Rodimus. Now,

I think I linked you, oh God, months ago. I found

a listing on BigBadToyStore .com for... That

g1 black one that you had mentioned earlier Yeah,

yeah, the e hobby one and I thought that was

super cool, but oh god I didn't know how awesome

Shattered glass was gonna be because I remember

seeing the original YouTube video They did they

did for it like everything will be shattered

and I Again, it was like right when I was getting

back into transformers right when I was getting

you know back into collecting and i i missed

out on two thousand six and two thousand seven

for bachon which was donahue just passed and

games of deception and when this came up i was

like oh wow and damn i i i i have to get those

other classic molds of him the henkei version

in the uh... in the original u .s. version uh...

but yeah uh... yet you know how you can tell

that uh... Shattered Glass Rodimus is evil. It's

the goatee. Taken straight from Star Trek with

Spock. Oh, yeah. Oh, God. That was so awesome.

You put in your fill, so we'll keep on trucking.

Yep. So now we're in 2009, and the first new

Rodimus figure we got in 2009 was the Legends

Rodimus, which was actually quite elusive at

one point. A lot of people had very difficulties

finding him. And I remember he was going at one

point on eBay for like $20 to $25, which is kind

of crazy. Now it's died down a bit, because now

he's more available. But back then, wow, people

were paying a lot of money for that little Rodimus.

We also got the Henke Hot Rodimus, which in my

opinion, at the moment, as this podcast, is the

definitive Rodimus. It's the classics toy, but

with the colors done right. It's not an orange

spoiler. It's like a gold, beautiful, shining,

amazing spoiler. That's it for Rodimus. I'm not

going to jump into the animated one and the Sons

of Cybertron, everything that's going to come.

I'm just mentioning what is available as of this

podcast. Now, the other stuff I just want to

mention is just some little odds and ends. There

was an exclusive, and I actually learned this

Thank goodness because of my girlfriend's profession.

She's a dentist. And dentists, because they always

give free little thingies to kids when they go

to the dental office, they get catalogs for that

to order. The catalog is referred to as Smile

Maker. It's a company that handles in giving

stickers and tattoos and toys and rings and stuff

to children who go to dentists. Apparently there

was a Smile Maker exclusive run of G1 tattoos.

And lo and behold, guess who was one of those

rub -on tattoos? So, guess who ordered a case

of Smile Maker G1 tattoos? And the funny thing

is, if you were at TFCon 2009, I'm going to try

to wear it again for this year, but I put on

the Rodimus tattoo just to be a dork. That's

taking completionist to a whole new level. This

list is everything. This is literally everything

for everyone. The only other thing that SmileMaker

also had was, I managed to get these two, they

had them in their old stock. They also had Energon

stickers for when Energon was running, and so

obviously they had a Rodimus one, they had Inferno.

So I got the Rodimus one. After that, there's

just pretty much homages and mold uses. So the

first ever Rodimus homage was in 2000 from Car

Robots, and it was Super Speedbreaker. And then

they later on did the clear version, which was

still done in the hot rod colors, which was an

exclusive from Wonderfest. Then when we got those

toys in robot in disguise, who was known as Super

Sideburn, which was again the Rodimus colors.

In 2002, we got Micron Legend Super Hot Rod,

which was hot shot, but done in the hot rod colors.

In America, we got them as Armada PowerLynx Hotshot,

and this comes in three different variants. It

comes in painted Autobot logo, non -painted Autobot

logo, and painted forehead and non -painted forehead.

It's very confusing. Essentially, there's three

versions, but they're out there. Then you have

in 2005, Galaxy Force, one of their DVD exclusive

figures was Red Exileon, which was a taking Exileon,

known as Hot Shot here, but taking Exileon's

mold and painting it in a red hot rod -esque

colors. He went for a lot of money back then,

almost a hundred bucks. Before you move on, I

truly think that Exileon, now I don't know too

much about the character, or whatever, but I

truly think that was an updating of G1 Hot Rod

because I have the BotCon08 gold bug repaint.

Oh yeah, oh yeah, completely. They did that on

purpose. The transformation is exactly the same

as G1 Hot Rod. He even has the tri -barrels on

the inside of his wrists, if you look carefully.

Yup. Like, it's all there. They obviously did

that character without an interpretation. And

so then afterwards, in 2005, Exileon came out

here in America, except they really made him

very Hot Rod -esque. They gave him the flames

on the front of the car and everything. They

kept the clear plastic still blue instead of

yellow, but any customizer could do that easily.

In 2006, we got the Cybertron Legends Red Hotshot,

which was just the mini hotshot Exileon, but

now done in red. So there's the Rodimus homage

there. And then the last thing I'm going to mention

is other toys that use Rodimus molds. The first

one ever to use a Rotomus mold that wasn't a

Rotomus character was Checkpoint from Energon.

He came in the SWAT 2 -pack and it was Energon

Rotomus done in white. Then we had the 6 -inch

Titanium Menasaur from San Diego Comic -Con,

which used the 6 -inch Titanium Rotomus Prime,

but done in black and apparently it's Menasaur.

Then in BotCon 2009, we got Thunderclash, which

was again using the Energon Rodimus mold, but

now done in the UK Thunderclash colors. Then

that same year in the custom class, they did

Shattered Glass Thunderclash, which was just

the same character, but done with some black

accents and stuff. The last Rodimus mold to be

used is recently Smokescreen from the movie line.

They took the Legends Rodimus figure from Universe.

and painted it up in G1 smokescreen colors. And

that's it at the moment. There's more to come,

obviously. We heard actually recently from the

Club comic we're going to be getting a blue repaint

of Classics Rodimus, a sideburn. But again, that's

all to come. So I'm not going to mention all

that stuff. I'll mention it when it comes. Well,

one thing we do need to mention is that animated

Rodimus, and I don't care. I don't care what

the package says. I don't care if it says Rodimus

Miner. I'm calling him Animated Rodimus. That's

it. End of story. I don't like the major minor

thing. Officially, according to what he's called

in the All -Spark Almanac, it's Rodimus Prime.

Okay, well, there you go. What I always say is

whatever they call him in the show, in fiction,

that's what his name is. True. Toys? You have

to realize, toys... It's licensing. It's just

licensing. we'd be a go hey i really like optus

prime bumblebee and auto bot jazz yeah yeah uh...

but uh... i see you know we need to bring up

even though he's not released yet uh... animated

erotimus is it will be The definitive Rodimus

for the end end of time they found away and I

cannot wait until somebody Hopefully you get

which hopefully you will get the first one and

hopefully you will do be be the you know The

first youtuber to get a video of it. I guarantee

one thing I probably won't be the first youtuber

because I know right now there's a bidding like

that one that we were talking about before that

Gen Zao has The bidding war that's going on for

that toy right now is Something beyond fandom

could comprehend. Okay Yeah, because well again,

I had no problem spending four digits on super

hybrid Rodimus because of opportunity and rarity

I Will not spend four digits and it is at four

digits right now. Oh My god, I will not spend

four digits on a toy that in a couple of weeks

or 1299 and I'll have a billion of them So, to

get some YouTube cred, I don't think so. I don't

think so. I know. I know. Again, I'd rather spend

that $1 ,000 and donate it to charity or something.

It's really silly. Yeah, but I can't wait to

see you or somebody that's a fan of Rodimus,

not some shill -faced YouTuber. When that toy

does come out, I will do a review. I'll do Proto

Man. review of it yeah which and and and and

no and no using rhino dvd cases as a backdrop

and uh... anyways uh... all of the story uh...

we have to uh... mention that One of the reasons

why this is going to be the most definitive Rodimus

ever is because somehow they managed to figure

out where to put the damn engine that it's not

a peg on the back of his head. Oh, yeah, I love

that. I think that was something that I pointed

out to Derek Wyatt. I was like, wow, it's really

awesome that that's the first time they've made

an attempt at it to finally get rid of it somehow.

And it's a very it's it's so simple, but yet

it's so smart. It's the same thing like i remember

the the guy who designed masterpiece megatron

he was like we sat at a table for two months

trying to figure out how to get rid of that trigger

for the robot mode and then it was staring at

us right in our face to put it into the leg and

it was it's it's probably I bet you it's the

same story for for this Rodimus where they were

probably like you know how do we get rid of this

damn engine and then it was probably just like

you know why don't we just like flip it and put

an Autobot logo and someone is probably like

it's a damn good idea you know yeah so we are

going to take a quick break you're probably going

to hear I don't know some strange Rodimus audio

I'm not sure yet what I'm going to put in and

we will be back after this Arise, Rodimus Prime.

Optimus. Well, that has been the epically long

Rodimus... I guess it could be called Spotlight

Rodimus, or Rodcast, or I don't know. Again,

I have to thank Drew Iden for taking 30 minutes

out of his time to talk with us and Proto Man

and I can pretty much go on all night about our

Rodimus fanboyism, but unfortunately we probably

both have to sleep at some point. So TFCon is

coming up July 16th through the 18th. Why don't

you pimp that out, sir? Yes, my beloved convention

TFCon is coming next week on July 16th, 17th,

and 18th. It is in Toronto at the Dixon Road

Doubletree Hotel. It is without a doubt, and

I could say this now, going to BotCon 2010, we're

going to have a bigger dealer room. That's saying

a lot, you know, you guys gonna have big bad

toy store there. Yeah, we're gonna have big bad

toy store there unlike Let me tell you something.

Um, we're gonna have a bigger dealer room. We're

gonna have just as many guests uh... with excel

because we're also gonna have a hasbro staff

just it's the canadian staff we're gonna have

exclusive toys were also but here's nothing to

we're gonna have future toys that are coming

up guess what guys you actually get the play

with them just not steal them because we're gonna

have to hurt you also before you continue the

pimpage speaking of stealing toys i forgot to

bring this up you tried to steal protector Yes,

Protector was shown at BotCon 2010, and we took

an image of me pretty much reaching out to steal

it. And then there was the other image of me

with animated Rotomus. You're going to have to

send me those. You're going to have to email

those to me. Oh, yeah. Let me tell you. I had

a great time at BotCon. I was with the whole

TFW crew. It was a great time to be had. I even

did the TFW podcast with Vangeline. Yeah, yeah.

I listened to a couple of those. That was pretty

awesome. So going back to it, we're also going

to have some of the future figures are going

to be coming out, so you'll be able to mess with

those in person, not just behind a piece of glass

you have to press your nose against. We're also

going to have a product preview just like...

Just like BotCon, we're going to be showing all

those figures that were shown at BotCon behind

closed doors. If you were a Canadian who couldn't

make it down to Florida, and I don't blame you,

it was far, you'll get a chance to now see what

Thunderwing looked like and Scourge and all those

things people were murmuring about in jazz and

tracks. You will get a chance now to see it here

in Canada. We have guests. We have David Kay.

Need I say more what he's done from Beast Wars

to animated to all the Unicron Trilogy stuff.

We have... Mark Ryan, the voice of movie Bumblebee

and Jetfire, and the voice of Hound and Hoist

from the video games, and Bumblebee in the video

games. And he also does all the voice of the

generic robots that are used in the movie continuity.

We also have, down the pipeline, in terms of

artists, we have Alex Milne of IDW, who's famous

for Megatron Origins and the new book coming

out, Drift, the miniseries. We have Dan Cahanna,

who's another famous artist who's responsible

for all the club comic books and also a lot of

the art that we've known throughout the years

for the profile books. We also have Matt Moylan,

who is famous for Little Formers and all his

funny little Transformers stuff. uh... who else

i know i'm forgetting people we have so many

guests here uh... i'm surprised you guys didn't

try to still actually mention this to you before

you went to bach on the market is the talk to

them and surprise you guys have not had stan

bush yet You know what he's on the short list

Definitely like he's like we have a list of people

and we have a budget, you know Oh, I forgot to

mention we have Derek Wyatt who's gonna be at

the show, but he's actually not a guest He's

actually someone who's coming to the show under

his own money Okay, that just shows how awesome

our show is when someone comes to our show and

doesn't have to even be paid to be there uh...

he derrick white had a really great time in two

thousand nine that he had didn't even hesitate

about coming back like it our show i think uh...

soundwaves c a of tfw works he's one of the big

mods tfw he said it the best is that TFCon feels

like BotCon how it used to feel. It used to be

all about the fans and the fans really had an

input and you really went there and had a great

time. I went this year, I went in 2008 and it

was business last time. It was just run to this,

run to that, run to that, run back to your hotel

room, party for a bit, but then before you knew

it, it was done. There wasn't really anything

that the fans were behind on stuff. TFCon, you

want to go drinking with David Kay and get them

drunk and have funny stories to tell your kids

for years to come? You go to TFCon because let

me tell you, there's fun to be had. I can't even

describe the list. I'm going to be doing a lot

of things. I'm going to be doing the trivia.

I'm going to be running two panels there. I'm

going to be doing a panel all about the history

of Transformers and video games, and I'm going

to be doing a panel about the truth of GoBots,

which was the history of GoBots before what we

knew. So much stuff. I can't even list it. Right

now, we're running a video contest that the due

date is going to be July 13th, where if you send

us a video... of what you want to do or buy at

TFCon, we'll pick the best one and then you get

into the deal room before everyone else. Oh,

sweet. So you get the sweet pickings of all the

stuff that is going to be there before all people

go in there and ravage everything. And last year,

our winner, Goober, let's just say he was happy

to buy some mint and box G1 stuff. He went in

there and he made good use of it. But yeah. Check

it out guys if you get a chance. I know a lot

of people who are Americans who live close by

are making the effort because of BotCon's location

because it was so obscure. A lot of border living

Americans are making their trip to TFCon this

year. And a lot of TFW staff, too. It's going

to be the place to be this year, let me tell

you. A lot of people are really making the effort.

If you're American, all you need is a passport

and a smile. Because you never have a problem

getting into Canada. It's always the other way

around. Unfortunately! Unfortunately, my birth

certificate went through the washer about fifteen

years ago, and I no longer have a copy of it,

and I couldn't get a copy from Massachusetts.

I was born in Massachusetts, I live in Kentucky,

and I couldn't get a copy of it in time for the

registration, so unfortunately I can't go this

year, but I am planning, hopefully, to plan on

going next year. We have an exclusive this year.

We'll have an exclusive next year. From what

it always seems, the show gets bigger and bigger

every year. The exclusive this year is? The exclusive

this year, because we could announce it now,

is Nightbird. Nightbird is a repaint of the RC

Impossible Toys mold, but redone with new sculpt,

new weapons, new everything, and a super secret

thing that's going to be coming free with it

that we can't bring up right now. Come to the

show you will see Awesome So thank you for joining

us here on this special toy cast again. We are

not fully back Among the swing of things yet.

We will be returning on August 13th 2010 There's

some ways to get in contact with us really feedback

for the show visit the website geek cast radio

comm you can Comment on each of the website posts

there join the forums for the kind of our dot

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please do this follows on twitter the shooting

there is t f toy cast minus t if you and mike

what is your twitter sir medics yeah you're from

that guy is it's still probably doesn't respond

back you know i don't know why you just don't

change to the gd proto mannered whatever i don't

know yeah uh... and you can also followed right

now i think it's idle eleven i will put the link

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the show notes there uh... yeah you become a

fan on face book search the cast radio network

we'll be enjoyed this episode took as to which

you'll just next time be sure to visit big bad

toy store com for all your other your transformers

and other toy related needs and more for now

i am tfc one michael with And again, we would

like to thank Drew Iden for stopping by for half

an hour. Drew, you're more than welcome to come

back on the show again. Thank you for listening.

Until next time.