Real Seekers vs. Knockoff Seekers

Cliffjumper, commence countdown. Five, four,

three, two... Hello and welcome to the 65th episode

of Toycast sponsored by Big Bad Toystore .com

where you can save from 20 to 90 percent over

1 ,000 items and I think as of this recording

they're still having that 3 ,000 item sale. I'm

not sure. I am your host TFJoneMike and joining

me for the first time ever is Thorzine. Hello

sir. Hello internet, hello Mike. How are you

sir? Not too bad, how about yourself? Pretty

good, pretty good. So why don't you tell everybody

a little bit about yourself you're a transformers

fake seeker collector and Bot con gore and all

that good stuff Yeah, we'll get to that a little

bit later Couple of things I wanted to bring

up heading into the toy news segment here obviously

The biggest news this week outside of all the

filming locations, which I refuse to report news

on because obviously this is the toy show uh...

masterpiece erotimus been confirmed and then

you know done on pre -order bbts and i'm looking

forward to it probably not quite as much as like

proto man but uh... well proto man's already

got probably like six of them on pre -order so

I know I've seen Proto Man and I think God Dog

going back and forth on Twitter about the possible

mold. Oh yeah. Also, I was very surprised that

a lot of people were saying about him that there's

no room for a hot rod mold or whatever and I'm

thinking Well duh, it's masterpiece Rodimus Prime.

There might be. See the thing is though, just

going off of G1 Hot Rod and G1 Rodimus Prime,

they're obviously two very different cab slash

robot modes, obviously, but I don't know, maybe

Takara can, you know, find some way of meshing

the two together? I'm not really sure. Still,

it's something I would most definitely want.

I just assumed they were going to do Hot Rod

and then later down the road probably release

a trailer version, kind of like they did with

Optimus Prime. I guess only time will tell. Yeah,

only time will tell because right now all we

have is resin images. Targets were stocked, yay!

I was actually very, very surprised. We were

recording this... early Tuesday morning August

3rd, and I went to Walmart which as we all know

is a stupid idea, but Went to Walmart Friday

afternoon Just Hoping to see something other

than fucking tuner mudflap and and new unfortunately

not however My target is literally right across

the street from Walmart, so But I have been walking

all day long I'm like do I really want to walk

over there just to get disappointed and not there

not be anything there except fucking tuner mudflap

I said fuck it. I'll go over there, and we do

curse on this show so in case you feel the need

to So I went over there, and I went to the toil

and holy crap there was like Fifty -some -odd

boxes and about three employees unboxing toys.

Vaguely reminds me of Michael Wilson's post about

him actually breaking into boxes at his target

up in the Chicago area. uh... yeah they had parkour

combiners which if whatever they had all the

generation stuff they all the hunt for the decepticon

stuff see attack ravage see spray night ops ratchet

everything was restocked a target i was like

oh hell yeah so the first thing i do is i grab

two bullies and two optimists it uh... you've

been kind of lucky i guess they just locally

here the parkour combiners just showed up they

haven't seen any of the war for cybertron stuff

yet You know, I went to Walmart Saturday after

work, you know, on my way home from work. And

there's an ass ton of the first two, uh, the

Aerialbots and the Constructacons, or, uh, Combaticons.

And I already got the Combaticons and I'm debating

on the Aerialbots. I'm like, well, hold on. There's

a bunch of them there. I'll wait and see if I

find anything else. And lo and behold, I went

to go visit my mom Sunday, yesterday, and found

wave two of the power cord combiners and, uh...

If you're looking for generation stuff, I would

say hit up target or Toys R Us You know you'd

think as much as a seeker fanboy you are that

you would make that trip especially for thrust

So I'm not as pressed to find the generations

thrust. You're a completionist when it comes

to Seekers, dude. Just give in to the urge already.

You already know. he he he's on the list is just

not high on the press is that there's i'm sure

i'll be able to find them and i'm one of the

sales threads retreats yeah i'd tell you what's

on a high -priority list for me is that and i

know he's not out yet but animated rodimus all

my god they're gonna have such Toys R Us. I don't

know if it's Hasbro that does this or if it's

Toys R Us that short packs stuff. I'm not sure.

I would assume it's Hasbro that does that. Like

they'll put in ten Iron Hides and four Rodimus

per store. And that's just an example. I mean,

let's face it, Iron Hide is nothing but a repainted

ratchet with a new head. That's all it is, which

is a big let down, but um... Yeah, Rodimus is

going to be extremely hard to find. I just got

two RCs like three weeks ago from Lupus Convoy,

and it's been what, three, four months since

she's been out in stores? It's been quite a while.

Yeah. I learned my lesson with the animated RC.

I already pre -ordered Rodimus. see that's the

thing i i saw pictures on tfw about i don't know

a couple weeks ago uh... about uh... japanese

animated rodimus supposedly the original photoshop

images we saw him being maroon and him being

mistransformed apparently because the car is

doing this whole twenty ten uh... transformers

thing Apparently, supposedly, his, the Japanese

version, is gonna have the Season 3 Maroon Darker

color. And while that's cool and all, I want

what we had in the show. I want, I want regular

G1 homage Red Rodimus. I don't want Maroon Rodimus.

Not yet, anyway. Well, my thinking was I'll cover

my base. As long as I'm at retail here in the

states, awesome. And I can cancel with BBTS.

But if I don't, then I'm guaranteed to at least

be able to get one version. Yeah. The other thing

that was news article the other day was official

image of generations blur and dirge. Now, you

already have the Henkei dirge, don't you? uh...

yet and you would have to pick this one up either

well it sucks for you uh... don't get me wrong

if i see in the board on site but i'm not going

to make a special yeah uh... the only ones out

of the the generations line that i'll even be

looking forward to is the war for savage on stuff

and honestly i don't know who's just By looking

at the images of the alt modes, I only want one

sound wave and I only want one Megatron. I do

not like their alt modes at all. They're not

exactly. I wish that they had more of a sheen

to them like they did in the photoshopped images,

or if they had a more metallic design like they

did in the actual game. Uh, no. That blur looks

pretty cool though. Yeah, I'm looking forward

to both of them. I haven't had... I don't have

any attachment to either one of them. I haven't

played the game yet, so... I'm sure when I see

them finally in the store, I'll probably end

up being pretty impressed. Yeah, if it's not

Starscream, it doesn't care, ladies and gentlemen.

i'm a hopeless family whenever i see something

new again uh... what was that which my wife hates

but yeah uh... i guess uh... i guess we can get

right into the uh... display case segment which

is now our new toy discussion segment and you

sir are going first with your pick which is uh...

uh... Masterpiece Ghost Starscream, I guess.

Yes. Okay, start fan -wanking yourself. Really,

I was, I'm incredibly impressed with it. It's

plastic quality and it's really good. I was surprised

at how fragile it's not, you know, given some

of the stiffness with its kind of stereotype

with a lot of queer figures. I don't know what

they did with the different clear plastic that

most clear figures get. It's incredibly sturdy.

Yeah. I wasn't as afraid to transform it as I

thought I was. It was really nice. And you really

couldn't afford to buy two. No. It was one of

them deals where if he breaks, I'm just going

to cry. I remember like, what was it, like six,

yeah, six, seven months ago when... supposed

rumors of all he's happening alone always cancel

always happening i remember i i linked you something

on twitter about it they're like he had he's

already pre -ordered and i'm like dude how the

hell you know for that he said by june all have

the money that's that's one of the nice things

and i don't need to use the sponsors not trying

to too hard but they've they've got awesome pre

-order system where you can pre -order you don't

have to pay for it So it gives me time to where

if I change my mind, I can cancel it and they're

pretty hassle free with canceling pre -orders.

Oh, canceling pre -orders is nothing. You just

update the cart to zero. Or you just update the

pre -order page to zero and it automatically

removes it. So yeah, it's really, really nice.

They get a lot of my pre -order business. They

were the first ones to announce Yeah, most of

the masterpieces and I unfortunately I don't

have any of them yet i'd just put a thread over

at uh... product and empire dot com slash nexus

about toycast accepts donations and i put pictures

and links to uh... war for cybertron soundwave

and megatron because there's no way i'll be able

to get those figures at this point and i need

to thank uh... godspeed uh... off of the uh...

tfw boards who joined our boards he uh... he

sent me a war for cybertron optimus in alt mode

so big thanks to him for that and i will be getting

to the WFC figures at some point once Toycast

officially returns, because we're still not back

yet. I have a secret evil plan for Toycast's

return, the official return, so that'll be revealed

in the next episode. But yeah, it's one of those

things where masterpieces, most of them, are

like 200 bucks. Hardly coming around. I was fully

expecting it to be at least 200. I had my fingers

crossed open it'd be no more than 200. So when

they put the pre -order up for 135, I was like,

no brainer. In my head, I saved myself about

75. My wife doesn't see it that way, but as long

as it makes sense to me, it's all good. Well,

at least you're not like Michael Wilson who he

can only have one collection. Oh boy. Yeah, I

find myself, there's no way I could limit myself

to just one collection. Let alone what you've

done with the Seekers is pretty much one brand

of the collection. Let alone all the other figures

that they put out. So what else about Masterpiece

Ghost Starscream do you like? Um, really just

the whole clear plastic thing, you know, like

I said, I'm, I'm just a fan boy and the fandom

as a whole tends to go nuts for clear plastic

and that's what got me. Yeah. So, uh, you know,

it's, it's pretty much identical to the, I guess

to the U S version, except for in clear plastic.

I didn't notice many differences, differences

between the paintings and stuff. Yeah. Plastic

quality is good. Yeah. Um, What was I gonna say?

So outside of your your secret fetish you're

getting clear Rodimus, right? Yeah, I've actually

the pre -order just came in the other day and

I've got to put money on my account to pay for

here before BBTS cancels it. That should be coming

in here. I'll probably pay for that tomorrow.

Oh, really? Which one did you order the animated

version or the or the Sons of Cybertron set?

The animated set came in this week, I don't think

the classic set or the Henkei sets get slated

so Late this year so that gives me a little bit

of time to come up with With that yeah, yeah

That's true do you have any quibbles with Masterpiece

ago Starscream The one thing I have with it is

is purely aesthetic, but the little the stand

Like the base is completely clear the figure

is completely clear and the vertical piece that

goes up to hold them hold them in place cast

in orange yeah and it really it looks weird like

aesthetically it doesn't flow with the rest of

the rest everything i'd have preferred it to

be like in a clear plastic but i mean all in

all it's not bad i guess it's not nothing to

anything to hate the figure over yeah which um

Which mode do you prefer to have him displayed

in? I keep almost all of my figures displayed

in robot mode, so... So I have him in robot mode.

Takes up less space. Yeah, that's the thing.

And if I just wanted to have a jet, I could have

just went to the model store and bought a jet.

Save myself 130 bucks. Yeah, this is true. uh...

or you know in my case that's why you might do

it so you could uh... i'd give you guys credit

that you that i know you when there's a couple

of the court for me it's it's very simple and

i i've said this before i have i don't think

you know they've told you but i don't know i

probably said on twitter before i was more of

a case of cerebral palsy i pretty much do everything

left -handed so i have to transform stuff with

one hand that's where video games with one hand

so uh... if whatever like especially war for

cybertron stuff i'm so happy it comes in robot

mode uh... however that mustard yellow -looking

gold pieces shit toy is harder to transform than

anything I have ever owned. It's almost like

it's Movieverse, for Christ's sake. The Bumblebee.

But no, I have to have two of everything because

I like displaying it in robot and alt mode. So

the only one that really gives me issue is actually

Animated Leader Megatron because damn, that's

a long ass hopter. you know in all mode oh my

god speaking of which you actually sent that

to me yeah is it speaking of which any time you

want to get rid of them i've got an empty spot

oh no he's he's staying right where he is uh...

but uh... yeah no i uh... i like the way the

the clear figures look, but it's just I don't

think it's a collection I could get started on.

It gets pretty pricey. I can imagine. To say

the least. I can imagine. Like I got the G1 mold

and I started collecting long after that came

out. So I had to pay the secondary market price

on that. Yeah. At that point that's when I decided

you know what if I'm gonna spend this kind of

money in this world I'm gonna keep a pretty nice

secret collection. Yeah. Yeah Anything else on

Masterpiece Ghost Starscream? He would look very

nice holding that clear Megatron gun that comes

with the Sleep mode optimus prime. Oh really?

Yeah Which I mean it sounds a little weird, but

I'm thinking about I'm sorry I can I can deal

with The whole memo you know you have to have

a black optimist fine but really sleep mode You

you're basically rubbing the fact that he fucking

died in our faces to Cara what the hell Sleep

mode, he's not asleep, he's fucking dead! See,

I'm not as big a Optimus Prime fan. I passed

on the other Black Masterpiece Prime they put

out. This one with the clear trailer though and

the clear gun, I really want the clear gun. If

I can find somebody that doesn't want the clear

gun with their Prime, it'd save me a whole thing.

Yeah, we are going to switch gears and I'm going

to be talking about my selection. um... which

actually is uh... dc universe uh... justice league

unlimited lobo this was a fan collection toy

uh... from the tell and of course i did the big

f u to maddie collector dot com and i went through

to uh... big bad toy store for uh... for uh...

lobo and i was actually surprised the first time

about from intel since i was probably i don't

know five or six with the original he man line

and all the video reviews i've seen of all the

motel toys they come in these white mailer boxes

being it through uh... bbts and all that was

third -party i wasn't sure if they would have

the white male of i think just for you to be

the the uh... blister card with the toy no they

had the white mailer box very very cool uh...

very simple just as a justice league of limited

logo and lobo's name on it and it's got the adult

collector at the bottom there uh... very very

cool the actual packaging itself is very cool

because on the back uh... on the back of pack

packaging it'll show like the other figures in

the line on lobos it says you only need the main

man it's got him punching through the rest of

the packaging so you can't really see the other

figures in the line. Lobo himself he's he's fairly

good he is slightly larger in scale compared

to the other Justice League Unlimited figures

I think he's about eight inches or so and I've

got robot mode more for sebertron bumblebee here

just for well i just have them here uh... actually

have a little earlier but since i'm talking about

bottom i had to go get him off the shelf he's

actually a little bit uh... i guess the the deluxe

sizes for transformers and again you really can't

compare robot to a superhero or a super villain

however you see lobo uh... You really can't compare

the two but mobile be is slightly larger than

Lobo But like I said overall he's he's fairly

well well done He does come with his classic

jacket and little gray wife beater He's very

very top -heavy They really got the look down

his hair kind of impedes his head movement. He

can like move his head from side to side but

just it's not very good movement on that because

of the hair piece um his arms it's weird how

they molded these because on his left arm it's

like it's flush in line with the jacket so when

i put when i put his arm up like above his head

and the jacket and the arm piece on the jacket

moves it's like it's i don't know it's just weird

to me that They would show it almost shows parts

of the inside of them. I don't know what I don't

know what the deal is with it, but Very very

cool very glad I have him he kind of fits in

with the general aspect of my toy collection

I guess Considering all the other Justice League

figures. I have will not stand up and they're

in a purple little plastic box thing on the shelf.

The rest of it's all robots and mighty mugs.

So I guess Lobo can make himself fit in. All

in all, it's not a bad figure. If you're into

Justice League Unlimited, I suggest picking it

up. I suggest picking it up from bigbadtoystore

.com. He was only after tax and shipping and

all that. Well, I don't know if I should say

this, but they don't actually charge tax. After

shipping and all that he was like, I don't know

43 28 It's not bad for the size that he is and

and just for the the aesthetic that he is so

very very cool Just go over to big bad toy store

and just type in Lobo and you'll see him. You

should see him pop up Yeah, he's the first one

pops up under toys Justice League just sling

unlimited so He's very very cool Yeah, no it's

not So we are going to wasn't sure if we were

gonna have a topic discussion in this episode,

but we are considering I don't know when the

next time I'll be able to get Thorzin on the

show. The discussion this time around is real

seekers versus fake seekers. Oh boy. Now my stance

is, and my stance has always been this way. If

I want a G1 Starscream or a G1 Skywarp or a G1

Thundercracker or any of those original seekers,

I want to get the original toys. Because that's

the whole point of putting those toys out so

people can have them. Not some repainted black

and purple knockoff or some clear fake thing

that isn't even the true character and yadda

yadda yadda. So explain to me the appeal of knockoffs

cuz I just don't effing get it It's twofold.

I mean I'd like having oddities, you know when

people look at look at like my collection threat

my Pictures of my collection like in the collection

threads on CFW and stuff. They have that odd

thing that somebody always asks about With the

Seekers, it's a little bit more because there

were, like in the G1 cartoon, there were so many

generic Seekers in the background. Like the generic

purple ones are the most, people always know

Sunstorm started out as the generic yellow Seeker

in the background. It's nice to find knockoffs

because I'm not skilled enough to do customs.

So if I can find a knockoff that kind of fits

the mold for being a generic Seeker from the

background. From either G1 or NK, I've got classics.

I've got a couple knockoff classics that kind

of fit that bill. It's nice to have those just

to kind of flush out the secret collection a

little bit and give it that little bit of oomph

that other people who may collect seekers might

not have in their collection, you know, because

every secret collection or collector is going

to have a G1 star screen. They're going to have

most likely a Master P star screen. They're going

to have the... The classics are Henkei. For the

most part, your collection ends up looking the

same as every other Seeker collector's collection,

maybe minus one or two pieces. So we can get

them oddly sized figures or oddly colored figures.

It's that extra little thing that makes other

Seeker collectors or other collectors go, hey,

what's that? Where'd you get it from? And how

do I get one? So I mean, it's a little way to,

I guess, to have your nerd cock stroked a little

bit. Okay, so you're basically troop building

then. This isn't something to replace the originals

or just buy the fake ones because you can't afford

the originals. No, no, no. Not by any means.

You know, if there's a... There's a... I got

the Gente Ghost Starscream. It's the Classics

mode, Casting Clear. But it's painted different

colors. One of my things that I want to get is

There's another website out there. I won't mention

them because I know they're not a sponsor. Oh,

it doesn't doesn't matter we Okay, the KO toys

knockoff toys They have the classic Starscream

mold completely crystal clear You know, so it's

not a stand -in for the hand cave version, but

it's kind of a nice color variation To have in

there too almost like a variant just that oddball

piece to have somebody ask about. Yeah. I mean,

that's cool. See, when I think of people collecting

the fake Seekers and the knockoffs and all that

stuff, it's because they don't want to pay, you

know, the prices to get the originals. I think

that's where a lot of knockoffs get a bad rap.

I mean, because you always, when you hear knockoff,

you think... the person who's trying to cheap

out and not pay 20 bucks for the figure, which

is only twice what the retail was. I know quite

a few collectors who specifically collect knockoffs

in addition to the originals, but they never

use them as a substitution to the original. It's

always like, here's the original and look at

this variation I found. It's kind of a rare knockoff

from the 80s. The four star phantom seekers are

a good example of that. You notice the G1 seeker

mold, but they have slightly remolded wings.

They look kind of, they're kind of wicked looking,

but they're a vintage knockoff. The quality is

almost on par with the G1, but by no means would

you mistake that for Starscream or Skywarp. They're

their own thing. All right. Okay. I still don't...

on a troop build but okay I see where you're

coming from as far as you know adding the oddity

to your collection or the you know the really

strange stuff or the really different stuff and

at least for you know most fans that are doing

what you're doing that's that's okay but you

have these other fans who will cheap out and

buy the the knockoffs because they don't want

to pay whatever the pride I don't even know I

haven't even looked on I haven't looked on eBay

and like over a year so I don't know what a like

for an example a G1 mint and box Starscream would

even go for if even be there if it would even

be there or even a loose Starscream that's complete.

I can only imagine what that would go for. Yeah.

And see, the three main ones, I mean, yeah, we

can talk about Dirge and Ramjet and Thrust, but

the three main ones, Starscream, Skywarp, and

Thundercracker, they're in almost every, well,

they're not almost, they are in almost every

single line. Regardless. And then down the line,

maybe a future wave you have. dirge and thrust

and ramjet and whatever else but it's like yikes

um you know thundercracker skywarp and starscream

they're just everywhere um and i just can't well

even even real ones it's especially the animated

versions i don't like them I don't like the design

on them, they just... I have to admit, I love

the animated line in general, but the animated

Seekers are not among my favorites. The blue

on the star screen really put me off on the design.

Well, but they were going... The thing about

animated is it is probably the only Transformers

cartoon Whereas cartoon versus toy is completely

show accurate for the most part Yeah, you know

And for the most for the most part it's one of

my it's my favorite modern line. Yeah, I mean

rival in like the classics Yeah, but the seeker

mold itself for that line just The jets themselves.

They just look too fat. I mean they don't oh

seriously they just they look like it's It's

like they drank about 20 gallons of energon each

they just don't look The toys themselves now

the seekers in the show looked awesome, but the

toys themselves they just don't look like real

seeker jets to me and it's mainly in the cockpit

area where where I'm seeing this where I'm seeing

this fattening thing it's like it's just there

and even in robot mode they that's funny they

look fat as hell and in jet mode in robot mode

it looks like they're friggin anorexic and they're

gonna suck a golf ball from a garden hose it

just oh I don't know I guess if you, and it's

funny, you know, I've, I've, when Animated was

still on the shelves and Walmart and Target and

all that, I've went in and I've seen them. I've

seen Skywarp's there. I've seen, uh, Starscream's

there. And I, well, I won't pick up Starscream

because I don't like that character, but I've

picked up Skywarp several times when he was there

and I'm like, nah, no, I can't do it. There's

just, there's just no way I can. there's no way

i can do it so so i am not a completionist when

it comes to collecting i collect what i want

and what i like um as far as real versus fake

seekers i see your point and i you know i agree

and that's cool but if you're one of these decepticon

douchebags that just does it because you don't

want to pay the actual price of a real see and

like you said there's so many remolds of them,

that you don't really, I mean, unless you're,

you know, a true G1 completionist, just get a

hen came old or a... a classics mold of Starscream

or Skywarp or whoever else. So, I don't know.

You alright over there? Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm...

You gotta forgive me, it's a little bit late.

Yeah, it's a little bit late. Yeah, exactly.

It didn't help that it took me forever to get

the headset to work. Well, at least it worked.

I'm trying to think what we're going to do here.

Let's see here. I guess we will go to a little

blurb and we will come back with the outro. Nation

Starscream this is bad comedy Megatron is that

you here's a hint else attempt to fill his shoes.

What do you say his name was? Galvatron! The

name's Lobo. That's L as in Lacerate, O as in

Obliterate, B as in Disembowel, and O as in uh...

I guess I can use Obliterate twice, huh? What

do you think? I think you're a certifiable madman.

Thanks. Follow us on Twitter, the show name there

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I am TFG1Mike with Thorazine. Thank you for listening

until next time remember kids KOs are no substitution

for the real thing