Third-Party Transformers, Toy Quality, and NECA Predator Figures

Sentinel online now loading the geek cast radio

network of podcasts Hello and welcome to the

67th episode of toy cast brought to you by the

eat cast radio network I'm your host if you and

Mike and once again, I'm joined by optobotomist.

Hello, sir Yes, and and and Spada who apparently

is building prosthetic hands just one What about

the other one? Oh boy, that's a horrible, horrible,

horrible joke that's coming into my mind. Never

mind. Why don't you tell us this story about

how and why you built this prosthetic hand? Sure

thing, Lefty. My company had a kind of a pseudo

-training -slash -team -building seminar today.

Uh -huh. And I was tasked with coming in and

providing technical support in, you know, doing

anything tech -wise to give them a hand. Okay,

fine, I did that. At the end, we had one of these

speakers slash... I don't know how to exc...

These guys, they come in from the outside, they

have you do activities to do team building and...

Oh, you mean kind of like office space but more

involved? Yeah, yeah the consultants So we did

they did a couple we did a couple of stupid things

and then we did some interest an interesting

thing and then we were given these non -descript

plastic bags that had zip bag like zip Pencil

bags in them except significantly larger when

we opened it up we were told to open it up and

pull take out all the contents and try and guess

what it was and Me being the person that I am

I just kind of looked at the parts and started

assembling it together just in my hands I'm like,

oh it's prosthetic hand cool as The rest of the

people at the table are just looking at me going

holy shit He just put that thing together without

even just looking at it You know a bunch of business

people and then you have a techno person me And

then so we ended up building prosthetic hands

for this this charity called LN -4 .org and what

they do is they take these, they give these prosthetics

to these team building companies. They go out

and then have the people at the team building

sessions put together the prosthetic hands for

landmine victims. So all of these things that

we were given are taken back given a quality

control check and then sent overseas to victims

of landmine landmines and It's really really

cool. I mean this this this Nonprofit called

LN has done. This is their fourth project their

first project was something like designing bicycles

or bicycle helmets for children and then their

next project was giving by cheap easy to build

bicycles to third world countries I mean it's

really pretty cool yeah I'm giving that an applause

because I really do think that that is a fantastic

now did you know that what you were going to

be doing was going to go towards this When we

dumped out all the Lego pieces, we were all kind

of like, and just from my experience working

and volunteering in hospitals, I was looking

at it going, wait a minute, there's a strap meant

for an upper arm slash shoulder area. Those are

retention straps. That's, wait a minute. That's

absolutely amazing I'm sorry. I think that's

absolutely amazing. I really really truly do

was Surprisingly awesome. Plus I got to build

something and I was bored for most of the day.

So that really perked me up And I had the thing

built in like he's like, oh, yeah 50 minutes

10 minutes later I've got the thing built and

I'm putting the straps on and my teammates are

looking around they're like Holy shit, we got

the IT guy and he is kicking ass! That is awesome.

Anytime that anybody does any kind of charity

work, it always makes me feel good that people

like that are out there. There's so much negativity

and there's so much bad spirits out there. I

don't even know which one to call it. There's

negative bad stuff in this world. that anytime

anybody does anything that's for charity just

warms my heart knowing that there are people

out there that do that kind of stuff. So Mr.

Spada, you are even higher now held in regard

in my personal whatever of strangers that you've

never met, so. There you go. Some dudes that

you've never met before in your life. You just

know them from YouTube. hold you in high regard

here sir i have to work with the cockles of your

heart uh... uh... uh... so last time that you

guys are on last week uh... i kinda wanted to

keep some continuity with episode sixty six and

sixty seven spade you asked me how i felt about

uh... War for Cybertron Optimus, so I'll be talking

about him tonight even though I have like this

plethora of toys that have come in this week

and still two more to come in. But the discussion

topic we were going to do last week we didn't

get to, we're going to start with that first.

Somebody suggested third party products and then

I think Spada you suggested the toy quality overall.

Where do we want to start with this? Why don't

we start with a third party? Okay Yeah, cuz that

can kind of lead into the next one as well Okay,

I don't actually own any of the fans project

stuff, but I want some of it I've got the city

commander Armor, I've got a war bot and I've

also got the superior on add -on set Those would

cover the ones that I have as well All right,

so Now, going forward, there's also going to

be the Bruticus add -ons, which I have pre -ordered,

and the Rodimus, I'm sorry, Protector set. And

is that it? Are those the only two I could think

of off the top of my head? I know there are a

ton more. There's a million other companies doing

it but in terms of fans project I think those

are the next two that they have I think that's

all that they've really announced There's other

random like I gear Impossible toys, there's other

companies that are putting out other things that

are similar but In terms of the third product

birth that you know, the third company type of

thing. I really think fans project blows everybody

away it's it's amazing the quality level and

this is where I was kind of saying it kind of

goes into the the other quality question their

quality level on these things is phenomenal in

my mind for you know third -party company yeah

it's I do not have a single complaint really

about any of the fans project stuff other than

the fact that it takes way too long for the stuff

to come out and the price usually kind of bugs

me. I understand that they're limited runs and

things of that nature but I think that especially

with fans project they're getting to be Much

more reputable company a lot more people are

carrying their products. I know I mean big bad

toy store does TF source does I'm trying to think

of other ones. I mean everybody carries their

stuff I I didn't think robot Kingdom carries

their stuff over they do these I mean, it's they

get everybody's carrying their stuff. So For

my for my standpoint, I don't understand why

they can't drop prices just a little I mean I

paid what was it like $80? No, I don't think

it was that much For a war bod what was wasn't

like 60 bucks. I thought it was 70 Yeah, it was

78 99 on BBTS. Okay, so let's go 70 $80 depending

on where you get it from you know and that had

a lot that had diecast in it was a fully transformable

figure you know it's it's going above and beyond

just the city commander or the superior on upgrade

kits so i understand that being a little bit

more but i don't know i was looking at the uh

the brutal kiss set and fifty dollars for each

individual you got the um blast off and you got

the swindle figures whatever their unofficial

names are munition munitioner and um i can't

think of the other one munitioner is one of them

right right but fifty dollars and they're they're

scout class figures that that that seems like

a lot to me well it's not just the figure you

have to realize that both of those figures is

coming or are coming with a tremendous amount

of accessories. Like, you're not just getting

the figure in this case. You're getting the figure

and all the accessories, all these extra guns.

I think the Munitioner comes with an extra setup

for, what's his name, onslaught. And it turns

him into a more G1 -centric form. Then the executioner

comes with a shit ton of guns and weapons and

knives and wired if you're a giant robot You

need a knife. I don't know Why not? I Agree,

I mean you're getting you're getting a lot of

bang for your buck I just but you're right it

is expensive Maybe my biggest problem is the

fact that as soon as these figures were announced

the the aftermarket prices for the Bruticus figure

itself Double to triple. Yep. I mean that's probably

and my biggest problem is I do not have a Bruticus

figure So if I want to buy one I got to find

one that's a hundred to a hundred fifty dollars

Plus I have to pay another hundred dollars to

make it look better That's you know, that's not

being fans projects fault. I mean, I don't blame

them. That's just normal You know Capitalism?

Yeah, capitalism. That's right there. It's, oh,

I got this. Something fantastic is coming out

to add to it. Let's mark the price up. That's

my only problem that I have with fans project

stuff. My only problem with them is I can't find

the ones that I need now. The only one I need

really is Shadow Commander armor. Unless I want

to try to go to eBay which I refuse to do BBTS

doesn't have it. I don't know about TF source

or anywhere else, but Yeah, I don't know At this

point it's not something I really absolutely

must have even though they're cool The protector

one now that I have I just got in the challenge

at Cybertron 3 pack so now that I have an actual

Classics Rodimus that It's okay, but at least

I have that so maybe I get protector eventually,

but I don't know I just I mean the third -party

stuff is it's okay. It's not anything that I

absolutely must have now Yeah, the only problem

with that is it shouldn't necessarily happen

anymore because There's no market for it is if

you go and try to find the cliff jumper Add -on

from fans project now. It's ridiculous. It's

impossible to find for Something that's not going

to set you back on a couple of your bills. Well

nowadays. Oh wasn't that one when it originally

came out wasn't it like $300 It was something

ridiculous, but it was something ridiculous and

now if you try going aftermarket. It's even more

ridiculous But It's a nice -looking set. I mean

it is all this stuff everything fans project

I gear impossible toys Every single thing that

they put out, in my mind, is geared towards adult

collectors. I mean, this is not something that

you want to get for your, you know, 15, 16 -year

-old kid. Oh, yeah. I mean, number one, the price.

I mean, I wouldn't want to give my kid a, you

know, $50 munitioner set and say, here, go ahead

and play with it. I'd be afraid that the kid

would break the thing just because. But... Well,

I'm terrified of breaking some of the stuff myself.

I mean, the... The light thing made me nervous.

Trying to put those light pieces in to the Ultra

Magnus figure made me nervous. And there are

parts of Warbot that, while I like Warbot, there

are a few little design decisions in there that

just... When I'm transforming it, I'm like, I

don't know. Yeah. The biggest problem that I

had with the war bot and after I did my review

of him. He hasn't been transformed since I Cannot

stand the engineering that they put into his

arms Switching from a helicopter to an armored

vehicle. It's I'm sure if I were to practice

it more often It would come a whole lot more

fluidly But I just think they really could have

put better engineering into that where it wasn't

as complicated That's just my personal opinion

on the thing. It's a fantastic figure and it

looks outstanding next to I have them right next

to my City commander and my Rodimus fingers the

the protect protector one. I'm really excited

about getting But I only have one Rodimus. So

again, I got to go and try a hot rod whatever

you want to call them I have to find another

one and you know Mike you got that that three

pack and that the three packs not a bad price

and I really wanted to have a hot rod next to

a Rodimus Prime and I might pick that three pack

up to be able to have that. You should really

pick everybody who is a Rodimus or Cyclonus fan

should really pick up this three pack. I just

as of this recording I just put out my video

about this three pack on YouTube and I'll put

a link in the in the show notes but he is like

Spada you originally did a while long time ago

the the original classics Rodimus when it first

came out, right? Mm -hmm. Yeah, uh That while

that looks slightly like Rodimus It's not a true

form of Rodimus or hot rod as far as the the

aesthetic and the design the hen came one that

came out is what very much better this one is

pretty much like you Took the classics mold but

took the design right out of TFTM It is super,

it's almost like fire engine red. It is that

red and that bright. At first when I saw the

pictures of him, I wasn't too thrilled with the

blue windshield because it's not translucent,

but it's okay. It's not the worst thing in the

world. However, I don't like the missile. the

missile looks like he ate a bunch of blueberry

or not looks like he ate a bunch of blue raspberry

lollipops and yeah it looks like he's crapping

blue I don't think the missile on any incarnation

of the figure are very nice Liked the because

I have because I've got them both here while

I've got The three -pack one here, and I've also

got shattered glass rotamus here, and they're

both in car mode I like the the one from the

shattered glass one and one, huh? Shut up I like

it because it's translucent the problem with

The one in the three -pack is it is a solid baby

blue almost just like the windshield. It's it's

not a translucent color It's just... They had

leftover Allspark Blue just laying around, and

they said, what can we do this with? And they

basically said, let's stick it coming out of

Hot Rod's butt. Oh, man. But yeah, I think if...

You know, whenever... See, my thing about Protector

is, while it's all well and good that we've seen

the resin images, until I see an actual colored

image, I'm still holding out opinions. It still

is awesome. I'm glad that Fans Project is making

it, but I don't... until I see colors of it,

because if this is the only Classics mold of

Rodimus, of the actual Rodimus colors that I'm

going to have... I want the protector to match

it. I don't want it to be the same colors as

the original classics and then, oh wait, there's

a difference in color, holy crap. As far as Impossible

Toys, I'm pretty sure you guys saw the news this

past July. TFCon up in Toronto, their exclusive

was with Impossible Toys for Nightbird. It's

basically a repaint of, was it TNS01 Valkyrie

or RC? wasn't it only like two or three inches

tall yeah I was I was there until I found out

that I Need to get a replacement copy of my birth

certificate I was debating on actually going

to TFCon this year until I couldn't find that

and then I was debating whether to get the non

-attendee package which is just the figure and

then I saw a video review of the figure and it

is tiny and I'm thinking the non -attendee package

that they wanted to get the figure $140 I mean

this thing is like a scout class figure That's

pretty that's a pretty fair size comparison it's

I Really feel as if Ttf con everybody knows what

most people should know about the whole Drama

that they had with fans projects and having the

power convoy and then You know, yeah, it's supposed

to be an exclusive and then a month later or

whatever they sold it again But who they took

away the briefcase or something like that I really

felt that they were really kind of scraping the

barrel trying to find some kind of an exclusive

and It's very unfortunate in my opinion that

they went to impossible toys to get this The

RC, you know for what it's worth. Okay, it's

fantastic. Okay, it's an RC But for that price

that you're going to be paying for it way way

out of my price range Yeah, I mean, you know,

I, you know, I work with Proto Man on this show

all the time and I, you know, I respect the guy

and I respect the fact that they're doing all

that convention stuff up in Canada for the ones

that may not be able to get it, get to BotCon

and honestly, you know, TFCon is much easier

to go to than a BotCon is, but, you know, the

thing is if you pay, because I priced it out,

for one person to go this past, or this year

that they had had it, because it's already over

now, i don't know with hotel if you split it

with somebody would come down to like i don't

know three hundred something dollars which isn't

bad it's like half of the price of the full botcon

you know it's it's pretty much the price of the

botcon pro primus package or whatever but that's

all inclusive that's the hotel that's the the

convention package and everything that's not

just you know that's everything and all of the

other uh... but Don't know. I just can't justify

paying $140 for a scout class figure No offense

to the guys at TF con and what they went to do

and what they wanted to do with that figure because

obviously Yes, it is a repaint, but we've never

had a Nightbird figure ever Impossible toys is

even making I Believe they're making a yeah.

Yeah here it is I'll put this in the thing that

you can do with as you please. Where's the cat?

Okay, that doesn't sound right. You sicko. Well,

you're the one that said it, not me. I know,

but you took it the wrong way. They have a non

-transformer. In my mind, Nightbird was in one

episode, never transformed, didn't do any of

that stuff. Impossible Toys is making another

version of the Nightbird figure that isn't a

transformable figure and it's only $45 on Big

Bad Toy Store. Okay now see for a second there

when you brought this up I thought and I was

gonna make the comment oh great another company

that screwed the guys at TFCon but since it's

a non -transformable figure I don't because because

the way I understand it was they wanted to go

to the possible toys for transforming night bird

based off of the tear to tns o one thing and

that would be their exclusive because of the

the history with fans project and all that debacle

you know they wanted to go with someone who was

actually gonna be fairly decent and with this

thing coming out for bbts or you know for from

possible toys if it doesn't transform i don't

see that as a as going back on Saying oh wait

this other one isn't exclusive, but this one

isn't I don't know what this new one is though

I mean what size is she she doesn't look like

she's I I have no idea All I know is it's what

weighs less than a pound but this my understanding

and I got this from Here say I'm not entirely

sure but this figure was up for pre -order from

impossible toys before the Nightbird exclusive

from TFCon came out. So this was actually around

first. Yeah. So why, can somebody please explain

to me why everyone cares about Nightbird so much?

I have no idea. That's a very good question.

I don't really. It was a character that showed

up once. Yeah. Okay, yeah, giant ninja robot

made by humans. Okay Did she I mean did and I

say she loosely because you know, it's a robot

but did she Did she have any comic? Appearances

or anything? Um, I don't know I can look It's

just I mean, I have to completely agree with

speed. I mean, there's this huge. Oh, let's have

a night bird figure in why Mean, okay the ending

of the episode if I remember correctly kind of

showed her off is I'm still alive and I'm gonna

come and get you eventually but that never ended

up happening but Whenever I see that episode

whenever I see that episode I think of the still

alive the portal song She premiered in the G1

cartoon. She then went to the universe records

comic And then dream dreamwave generation one

comics, but that was after she premiered in the

cartoon So it was at least it was at least ten

years Time when she first appeared to when she

showed up again. Yeah Your guess is as good as

mine. Good for people who want to put out accessory

packs and individual figures to make figures

that never really existed or whatever. I think

there's room enough for everybody, providing

you put out decent quality stuff that doesn't

screw people over. That's all I got to say. There's

one thing I don't like about some quality stuff.

It is the advertised images versus the actual

toy. Like, perfect example is Generations War

for Cybertron Soundwave. The images of him are

awesome. The actual toy really looks anything

like the images. Well, that could be just mistransformed.

No, no, I'm not talking about mistransformation.

Oh, you mean the Photoshop? The fact that they

Photoshop it and they make it all look shiny

and awesome and everything else and then you

get the toy and it's a little bit duller version

of the image. And that's one of my biggest gripes

about the War for Cybertron toys is I thought

there was, as I said last episode, I thought

there was gonna be more of a metallic looking

look to them and... Just didn't happen. That's

what the cars for yeah, that's true So that you

can you know pay fifty dollars for? Signed up

the pain a little bit What other third -party

stuff do you guys because I don't own any third

-party stuff, so what other One thing that you

kind of touched on about how they look versus

how they actually are one thing that I remember

was the And I'm gonna get this the name of it

wrong and I can't remember exactly who made it

but there was the the matrix Set or whatever

that was added to the animated line where you

got the You would you would get like the little

magnetic things that ratchet used the unicorn

calm Yeah, yeah So many, I mean I remember talking

to JT Mitchell 87 about this because he got the

set and we were looking at it and there are certain

poses where you know Prime is holding the matrix

thing above his head and that's actually impossible

to do because there's no opening on Prime's hand

to be able to slide these things into. So you

look at it and you're like oh that's gonna be

great I can pose it like that and then you get

it and you're like oh. The only way I can actually

do that is to cut Prime's hand and make a slot

in there so I can slide this in. That really

bothered me. Yeah. It subsequently made me not

buy the set because Jason Mitchell got it, reviewed

it, and I saw it and I'm like, all right, well,

I don't need to buy it because it's a piece of

crap. That's the only thing I can think of. I'm

done. I give up. Nothing more, I can't think

of anything on that lines. I think the one major

issue I have with the third party stuff is exactly

what Optibotomist said, is that they picture

it in such a way that once you actually get a

hold of it, it's not completely as advertised.

Well, I'm not, I was specific, I mean, yeah,

he did say that. I'm talking about Hasbro itself,

I mean, as far as overall toy quality. It's not

just the third party people that do it, it's

Hasbro does it too. Or also, how about some of

these retailers who say, oh yeah, we've got all

these figures and you go to buy them and then

two days later they send you an email going,

oh yeah, remember that order you placed? Yeah,

we're canceling that. Yeah, let's let's not go

there because that'll also go into a certain

MC calm Oh Maddie collector you assholes Oh,

Kmart. I was gonna ask, I mean, did that, because,

uh, this is kind of off on the tangent, but,

uh, it was reported on TFW that a whole bunch

of new waves of Transformers, such as War for

Cybertron, Megatron, and Soundwave, they were

all available through Kmart. And they were there

as in stock. Yes. Right. And they are not? No,

in fact, I went and I put... I ordered them.

I ordered Teradive, Tomahawk, Hailstorm, Soundwave,

two of the three Powercore combiners, and I think

one other thing. I can't remember what it was.

And so, Highbrow, they showed them all as in

stock by now. So I was like, well, fudge it.

And I went here and bought them all. Two days

later, this morning, Got it. I get two separate

emails. We're canceling your order. No reason

why? No telling me why Yikes that's not good

I had a feeling that was gonna happen to be honest

with those figures. That's why I didn't go ahead

and order myself Just something about it just

seemed really off It was it was very tempting

I actually there were there was a few of them

actually that I added to my cart And I was gonna

go with the the checkout thing and then I stopped

I'm like this isn't gonna work Very relieved

to find out that it didn't work because if it

actually did I'd be kicking myself in the butt

for not getting them Yeah, that's uh, that's

a whole nother thing, you know quality control

for Hasbro. You know, that's kind of been a thing

that, you know, I mean Hasbro's, you deal with

it when you deal with any kind of major company

like that. I have a question about quality control

though. I don't understand why the quality control

is so helter -skelter between, you know, whether

it's different waves or, but you know, you take

say, don't know say animated blur Okay, and Animated

blur was everywhere You know walmarts targets,

you know he was everywhere yet Everyone I ever

saw a video review of him do do a video review

of him They all had different quality control

issues with him. I Don't understand if Hasbro

puts out You know a certain Amount of a figure

like say animated blur How there can be such

differences in quality control from figure to

figure I? Heard well the animated line. This

is something that I found very interesting because

the entire animated line had some severe quality

control issues while the subsequent line of generations

and Hunt for the Decepticons and even ROTF No

such, no real quality control issues. Yes, I've

had a few figures that have had some looseness,

but for crying out loud, my prowl, my original

animated prowl, his legs fell off. I mean, if

I would just turn them a certain way, they'd

just fall off. They wouldn't pop out the ball

joints. They would just fall off. And none of

the other figures since then have had that issue.

Now I've heard rumors that The animated line

was made at a different factory than the other

lines So that it you know these toy companies

all get their stuff from multiple different factories

Right so that could be it Now what I know being

a customer of several... How do I want to say

this without sounding too bad? Early attained

figures... Early adopters. Yeah, we'll go with

that. There was a news article, not too terribly

well, it was probably last year or something

like that, which would probably coincide with

a lot of this stuff. That a lot of the figures

were as you were saying speed up picked up and

moved from being done in China or whatever the

case may be and were moved to Vietnam a factory

in Vietnam Now that was confirmed to me from

the guy that I was buying figures from and he

affected his business and if you can see me I'm

doing a little quotation mark thing. It affected

his business because he was there in Japan or

China or wherever the factory was initially and

a lot of his stuff ended up going over to Vietnam.

That's why I think it actually was you, Spada.

You did the first review of Revenge of the Fallen

Barricade, the Human Alliance? Yes. And I think

I remember seeing you saying that you were surprised

that Piyog didn't do it before you did. No human

alliance figures are being done in China or Japan.

They're all being done in Vietnam. So, none of

us guys who get early stuff have the luxury now

of getting certain figures such as the human

alliance one. That's why you don't see Piyog

doing a review of... uh jazz until he actually

bought it at a target store so that contributes

i'm sure to some of it and in terms of quality

control that might go along with it as well that's

entirely possible yeah i don't think i don't

think has well picked up and moved all the way

to vietnam just because they were tired of uh

you know people swiping their toys from their

recycling bin and selling them to us americans

or whatever You know, I honestly think it is

a multifaceted decision for them. I bet you China

is having a lot of issues right now with quality

control of their products, their exporting is

getting ridiculously expensive, the humanitarian

or human rights violations over there. are ridiculous.

I mean, look at... Crap, I can't think of the

name of the company. It begins... I almost said

4chan, but that's not right. That company with

all the suicides in China... I mean, there's

a lot of problems over there. And, you know,

if Hasbro was shopping around and they found

this, you know, a company in Korea... You said

Vietnam. Vietnam that's one, got better security,

two, is paying their workers well, three, there

could be a lot of other issues and you know what,

it might also be cheaper for them. So it's like

a win -win for them. Very possible. Now I don't

know because I don't work at Hasbro. Oh no, yeah,

I mean it's purely speculation. It probably comes

down to not only dollars, but also maybe reputation.

And not just reputation of Hasbro, but the poor

reputation that they were starting to get from,

or their toys were getting from, bad quality

control. Yeah. No, that's entirely possible.

Who knows? Or I'm just talking out of my ass,

one or the other. Well, that would be an impressive

thing to see. There's always I don't want to

see it. I mean, that's kind of gross. Well, if

you'd like to see Ace Ventura, I'd recommend

you. Yeah, I was about to say, you've seen the

Ace Ventura movie, but you know, some of our

listeners might not be that old. Yeah. They don't

know who Ace Ventura is. Well, I shouldn't say

that. I was talking to my niece, actually, the

other day and I was saying how I'm excited about

the smurf movie coming out, and she's like, what's

a smurf? I'm like, are you kidding me? No idea.

She had no idea. But she's also 11 years old,

so. It aggravated me. Made me feel old. Anyhow.

You are old. Thank you. Thank you. It's awfully

nice of you. I think Kate is older than me, though,

so I don't feel so bad. Yeah, I know. Turning

30 in T minus 1... You're turning 30? Yes, I

will be 30 on the 28th. Yes, and speaking of

that, I have to send an email to a certain musician

for a certain birthday present, so... I'm gonna

get power ballads for my birthday! No, you should,

I don't think I should have said that. I don't

think you should have told me how old you are

because now I feel even worse. I am, well how

old are you Mike before I say officially? I'm

30. You were born in 78. We know how old you

are. I turned 32 in November. And I still collect

toys. Alright, can we move on to something that's

less depressing and makes me not want to jump

out of my roof? Out of your roof? Out of my roof.

Well, I'm on the second story of my house, and

I meant to say jump out of my window, but I screwed

up, okay? We've established this. I have some

kind of finality issues or something. Wow, there's

that rage that Nightmax's mom was talking about.

Holy crap. Do we have anything else we want to

say on the discussion topic? No. As soon as his

feelings get hurt ladies and gentlemen he turns

into Oscar the Grouch Okay, so moving into the

display case spader, what will you be talking

about this time? Hmm. Well, I have a bunch of

things I could be talking about, but you know

what? I'm going to talk about a Transformers

Generations dark mount. Now, Octobotomus, have

you gotten a hold of this guy yet? I have not.

It's one that I do want though, very badly, but

nobody likes me. I can't find one. I have to

say I was... I wasn't too thrilled with the figure,

but it was one of those that I was like, you

know what, I need to get this thing in hand.

And boy, am I glad I did. This guy is... It's

really, really interesting because his ult mode

is a half -trank... half -trank? Yes. What's

a trank? Half -thread. Half tread It's a good

thing this show isn't live ladies and gentlemen

I Cannot say this word artillery. Yes an artillery

half tread Tank there you go Otherwise known

as a half track and It's I've never seen one

of these things at blue before but it works His

transformation is one of the most enjoyable Transformations

out of any of the generations figures It's complex

and you don't quite get it the first time you

do it but the second or second time third time

you do it it becomes almost second nature and

what you end up with is a really nice really

posable little top heavy figure that just is

phenomenal it absolutely is everything on this

guy is tight he's got a giant pickaxe weapon

which is awesome he's armed to the gills with

missile launchers machine guns and and mortar

cannons and He's very poseable and just an absolute

joy of a Transformer. Wow, so you mean we're

actually going to get a positive YouTube review

from you? Yes. And my upcoming War for Cybertron

Megatron review is pretty positive as well. Yeah,

that figure is pretty awesome. For me, just commenting

on Darkmount... It's not a figure that I I don't

dislike it, but it's not a figure that I would

add to my collection It's just it's not something

really you really do a disservice by not picking

him up really This is gonna sound really weird,

but when I got a hold of generations thrust like

this is the fifth seeker mold that I have out

of all of the seeker molds He is my favorite

because he just has that je ne sais quoi to him

that some of the other seekers were missing and

it's really hard to explain it just it pushes

all the right buttons for me the same way that

War for Cybertron Prime does and some other figures

do Pushes all those little right buttons that

for me as a transformer fan. Just make me happy

So which mode do you like better? For dark now

yeah, I love this robot mode. I really do like

his vehicle mode I Will admit that the I think

the only thing I don't like about the figure

is that cannon mode It's just silly Really it

really is a Okay, someone was just playing around

with the prototype and went hey look I have a

cannon It's kind of a reverse girl walk mode

Because once you get it in hand one he doesn't

stay in that mode really well And I can imagine

that it just it looks stupid I mean if it if

it wasn't if he had his robot arms Not visible

like completely not visible. It would be okay.

I'd be like, okay, I can There's a little bit

of this of disbelief going on here. I could deal

with that but The thing that holds the mode up

is his robot hands That's just silly Yeah, now

my biggest my biggest I really from I'll say

from the ankles up There's nothing that I don't

like about how this figure looks just when you

get down to where his ankles are It kind of looks

really thin and very I don't want to say flimsy

but just going by this picture I'm looking at

it's on my figure it is nice and tight I do not

have a problem with looseness on the peg or the

ball joint but does it I mean from an aesthetic

look up him does it look because I'm looking

at this picture and it looks like he's His feet

are held together by little tiny bits of plastic

on the inside of his ankles and then they're

angled and it looks like it's just nothing Yeah,

it's a ball joint. There is an actual ball joint

there It's just the way the reason it looks like

that is because the the lower legs are hollow

Due to the transformation, but they actually

close up. They have doors on them that close

up If you're looking at the if you look at the

vehicle mode that whole turret section up top

Those are his legs. Oh, wow, and the actual cannon

is the is part of the pickaxe and that whole

pickaxe section folds up and fits inside Where

his legs transform into? the engineering on this

thing is Brilliant. Wow, that does look... you

know? Without a doubt, I'm gonna get this thing.

I'm gonna enjoy it. Like I said, the picture...

maybe it's the angle of the picture, because

it's a straight -on angle, and his legs are positioned

outward, and his ankles are bent. In robot mode,

that does look... his ankles are a little silly.

Not gonna lie. But the rest of the figure is

just... damn nice yeah and i mean like i said

i mean from the ankles up i love everything about

them i'm not gonna let something like that keep

me from getting it that'll be one of those when

i'm doing the review of it it'll be okay everything

about this thing is perfect i'm just gonna be

a little nitpicky and say that the ankles look

retarded that's about it yeah um i don't know

i just maybe if i had him in alt mode I don't

know. I'm just I'm kind of out on this guy. It's

like I said, I don't dislike it It's just just

looking at the because I'm looking at the BBTS

listing and I just I Don't know. I'm just kind

of maybe your review I mean, he's an art. He's

an army tank that's painted blue. So he's you

know, clearly he's got the you know the ocean

camouflage going I mean, I guess that's probably

one of the things that kinda steers me a little

off as well, that a tank shouldn't be painted

blue like that. Well, they could always repaint

him green and call him Springer. Oh, shit. Well,

Megatron shouldn't be practically white, but...

That's true. Well... That's true. What do I know?

I don't know anything. Why do people... I'm old.

Go back to that. I was about to make a... Oh

God, I'm gonna date myself if I say this, so

I'm just gonna let it go. Just go ahead and say

it. No, you already started out... You're already

dating yourself faster than me. I was gonna make

a Logan's Run reference, but I'm just gonna let

it go. For those of you who are too young or

have no idea what Logan's Run is, Google it.

Oh, I'm sorry. I have to rant about something

good to do with toys but when somebody asks you

a question and You look at that question and

go wow hmm. Let me Google that Does nobody? Do

people not realize what Google is I? Don't know

Where are you going with this, sir? Where are

you going with this? Because I'm not following

you. Maybe it's because I'm too old. I don't

understand, but I don't understand the reference.

Sorry, it's just something that's been happening

a lot lately at work where I get asked a question

and I'm too polite to say, you know, if you Google

it, you'll get an answer faster than just asking

me. Not like the whole like the old axiom when

you would be in school and you would ask a teacher

How do you spell something and they tell you

to look it up? Yeah Something that they legitimately

don't know that is very very simply done found

out by typing three words into Google Lazy yeah,

I'm gonna attribute it to laziness. Yep let's

move on yes you have anything else you want to

say about dark mount? um if you guys see it get

it it's a good figure i love his face i think

his face is fantastic okay so i'm gonna go next

and do it do it do it that sounds so wrong and

i'm going to be talking about generations war

for cybertron optimus prime And outside of the

one blemish on the left side of the truck mode,

which apparently is on every single figure...

Now, where is said blemish? Because I've got

Prime right here. Okay, if you're looking at

the left side, right behind the tire on the top

panel... Right there. That panel that folds back?

I don't know if it folds back. It's like the

arm panel. If you look at the underside of the

car and Then you wrote like if you're looking

at the left side of the car and you I'll just

take a damn picture of it and put it on Twitter

because oh Okay, if you're looking at the left

side of the vehicle just past the tire a little

bit higher than the actual tire Yeah on that

panel that forms his back panel, right? Okay,

you know what that is That is a tooling mistake

Yeah, that is the tools being too close to the

plastic when they removed it from the tree All

of these figures are made with injection Technology

meaning like you ever see like a model. They're

on those trees. Yeah, they're on the frames or

trees What happens is they stamp them they fall

down onto a conveyor belt go through a cooling

process and then are stamped out of those off

those trees what happened there is just a tooling

mistake it was maybe one or two millimeters too

close to the plastic but it's not just on my

toy it's no it's on the it's probably on the

entire run yep either that or the blade or the

blade on that section was dull and I've I've

seen that happen a lot Yeah, unfortunately prime

is covered with those with those blemishes Yeah,

um he remind me why you don't like that figure

might because of that no That wasn't finished

yet I said that I said that was just one little

thing that makes it Less perfect than what it

actually is, but that is just like one of those

little nitpicks When I first saw images of this

guy both in the game and the toy, I thought,

wow, it's a futuristic armored El Camino. Nice.

I mean seriously, if you guys look at the alt

mode, he looks like, the front of him, he looks

like a futuristic armored El Camino. Why can't

El Caminos be in the future? Why do you gotta

be racist? can't be in the future oh damn I really

like the alt mode I like the game design on it

better because again like I said last week and

as I've said the entire time about the War for

Cybertron toys I wish they would have gone more

game design and made it look more metallic in

the plastic rather than just a dull fade I don't

know, he doesn't shine as much as I thought he

was going to. I'm sorry, I'm still hung up on

El Camino. I do not see it. Okay, well that's

fine. If you erase El Camino, it's obviously

going to change a little bit from how the normal

El Caminos look. Yeah. Basically in the front

is where I think it's El Camino ish, the whole

armored thing in the front and the grill and

all that stuff. But an El Camino from the front

is just a regular car. No... An El Camino is

like a mullet, okay? You got a party, you know,

in the back and you're all business up front.

Well, Optimus can't have a party in the back

in alt mode because... You can see his legs.

Yeah, you can almost see his crotch. By that

logic, Paul, you just called Prime a mullet.

You know what? I'm going to stick to it. I'm

sticking with it. I'm not backing down from it.

Optimus Prime is a mullet. All right, so moving

on to the robot mode. And when Megatron be a

mohawk? The three of us will be taking our transformers

and assigning them various hairstyles Yeah, wow

holy crap He's got to have that vanilla ice hairdo.

Oh my God. No, no, no, no. I'm going with like

a kid to play flat top. Oh, that could be good.

We should probably let Mike finish. Yeah. Get

started. First of all, I hate both of us. No,

no, no, no. I'm not Ryan. I won't pull that card.

Thank you very much. But when I was in Target

when they restocked and I was like, ooh, yay,

I actually, actually a fan of the show, Godspeed,

sent me the alt mode version that I have. But

when I was in Target, I actually bought four

of these guys and I gave three of them away,

which is fine. Yeah. It's a long drawn -out story,

but a friend of mine and I tried transforming

this guy like 18 million different ways to get

him, and the instructions don't help, and we

actually watched Optibotamus' review of the transformation

from robot to alt, seeing as how Optibotamus

is the only person on YouTube that does reverse

transformations. I said, good lord. Yeah, we

could not get it. at all so luckily enough I

had two other ones that were still in you know

fairly decent robot mode and I just said here

you can keep these give them to your friends

or give them to you know give them to your kids

or whoever you want to give them to and um it's

really not that hard it is at least for me it

is it just it goes back to what Spada was saying

about dark mouth the engineering that they've

put into the generations line is just It's almost

movie difficult transformation At least for me

it is Yeah, but anyway his robot mode is is very

awesome The the ball -jointed head is is very

cool even though he only kind of looks he kind

of nods That's pretty much all the ball -jointed

head really does uh... he's a nice updated and

of course it's based off war for cybertron but

the war for cybertron designs is a nice updating

of g1 i think uh... i don't understand why he

has to have a hole in his arm like a megatron

gun that i don't get that pretty badass though

yeah it is i just don't get it it's supposed

to it's supposed to mimic the game Because he

has the gun coming out of his arm in one point.

Right, yeah. I still haven't finished the game,

so... In terms of the game, I have just... I

think I'm on maybe Chapter 3, where the Decepticons

are trying to destroy Iacon. That's about as

far as I am. Yeah, I'm still stuck on Chapter

10. I'm still stuck on chapter 10 fighting Dragonzord.

What? Dragonzord? Trypticon. Yeah, if you look,

when you get to that battle, Paul, when you,

when he, there's, I think there's like the second

or third part of that battle, he turns to the

side and does a tail attack. And I swear, the

model on Trypticon, when he's turned to the side,

it looks just like Dragonzord. Well when I'm

doing that and all that I'll be sure to have

the Power Rangers theme playing in the background

I think I think that's the best dragon dagger

we'll ever get on this show Yes Overall outside

of the complex transformation at least in my

own opinion. I say everyone should have this

I dare say it's probably the Best non -animated

optimus that we were gonna get at least recently

Well, I didn't count that I was thinking more

of like recent stuff and classics isn't so recent

but no I did like no I I have shattered glass

and I have nemesis I don't have the actual original

classics paint job, but no I like that mold I'm

saying Versus No. Cut it off. Why? What is wrong

with him? I hate movie toys. The only movie toy

I will ever buy or have ever bought was Ravage.

That's it. Movie toys are evil. I don't know

why so many people have no love for the movie

-verse. Well, if... If they put Steven Spielberg

in charge, maybe I would but that didn't happen

now did it? a cartoon and make a cartoon version

of Optimus Prime look real in the real world.

Just doesn't happen. I don't know. Maybe I'm

more lenient with it, but I think it did a phenomenal

job in terms of the engineering and making it

look like, here's Optimus Prime, he's a Peterbilt

truck, and this is how it would look if he transformed

into a giant robot. Spada, what are your thoughts?

On which topic? There were like three of them

there. Pick one and go with it. Alright, first

off, Movieverse. I could deal with it, but I'm

getting burned out on the Movieverse. It's got

such a long tail. There's some great figures

in it, but... Got really really badly burned

on a jet fire and then him merging with prime

looked terrible But movie verse aside I Like

prime I like that figure a lot he is awesome

I did a Out of the primes that I do have I did

a comparison video i don't know if you guys saw

it i'll have to put it in the show notes or something

i said it's uh... i called it its prime time

and i went down the line of all the primes that

i have from g one shattered glass nemesis uh...

animated and then war for cybertron and out of

them all war for cybertron is the smallest and

yes i don't i know animated and and and the shattered

glass nemesis those are voyagers He is smaller

than G1 Optimus. They're just, ugh. And, Optimotimus,

you had asked in your video review why the Autobot

symbols are the way they are. I think it's just

they put them on there that way. Oh. As far as

the way that they're angled, I think it's because

his arm is slightly angled. I don't know, maybe

it was because of the engineering of the arm.

I'm not sure. But... That's much crooked. Yeah.

real apparent reason other than they just wanted

to make it crooked. I don't know. With that figure,

I really wish they had released a Voyager of

it, but I'm happy with the Deluxe. I'm happy

with the Deluxe as well, and I agree with you,

Spada. I think they should have released a Voyager

with it because, I'm sorry, Optimus should not

be the same height as Bumblebee. No. I think

he's actually shorter than Bumblebee at the head.

He is, just like... Very, very, very smidge.

Yeah. And speaking of heads, I think for a deluxe

class, I think Optimus Prime's biggest problem,

aside from the fact that he's too small, but

like I said, aside from the fact that he's a

deluxe, I think his head's just too small. I

think if he had a little bit bigger head, it

would look a little bit better in more proportion.

His head is smaller than Bumblebee's. Yeah, but

that's not good. But, I mean, could they have

still had the ball joint thing if they made the

head slightly larger? Oh, probably not. Which

just makes it yet another voyager. Yup. Just

do it head -broke, do it from time to time. I

don't know how the paint scheme would work, but

I am obsessed, alright, I'm obsessed with Shattered

Glass Optimus and Rodimus Prime. And I don't

know how the paint scheme would work to repaint

this guy into Shattered Glass Optimus, but I

would love to see somebody repaint War for Cybertron

Prime into Shattered Glass Prime. That would

be so awesome. It'll happen eventually. Alright,

so... You'll get someone doing it. Yeah. So Optimotimus,

what toy are you going to talk about? I'm going

to break the mold with you two. I'm not going

to talk about a transformer. I recently got my

hands on it and it's been a long search and I

have to thank a very good friend of mine, Panzer

Jedi, he was able to find them and he sent them

out to me. The new Predator figures from NECA,

I should make sure I say that, these things are

outstanding. I'm going to specifically refer

to the classic Predator now. The classic Predator

comes to us in this new Predator movie as a different

race. Have you guys seen the movie Predators

yet? No. No. But I know enough about the Predator

lore. Yeah. Now, my understanding is I haven't

seen the movie myself either. It came out while

I was on vacation and I didn't get a chance to

check it out. But the general gist that I'm getting

is that The classic predator is the predator

that we were introduced in the first and second

movie and even even in Alien versus Predator

movies But I guess the new Predators movie is

ignoring that whole Genre item that they're ignoring

that aspect of the lore I suppose The the classic

predator that we're having it we find out I guess

in the movie that it's a bear another a various

race There's different races amongst predators

And the classic one is the one that we saw quite

Arnold and fought Danny Glover in the second

movie. And this figure, it boasts 20 points of

articulation, which for a NECA figure is impressive.

It's fairly well articulated. The only problem

in terms of the articulation that I see is his

leg joint at the upper thigh is a diagonal. Cut

joint as opposed to being a ball joint or anything

of that nature so you can only get it to rotate

outward and You get a weird I don't know squat

pose or something. I don't even know what you

would call it But the the amount of detail on

these figures has always impressed me I recently

started getting the Terminator figures and then

when I saw that they were going to do predator

figures I absolutely loved those movies growing

up because I'm old enough to remember having

seen the first Predator movie come out when it

was a new release at the video stores. Get to

the job, Bob! Yeah, yeah. When you just said

that you were reminding me of somebody else that

did that. So, thank you. Now you made my ears

bleed. So much fun with that movie and honestly

now that I have these figures it makes me want

to and I probably will do it tonight Run downstairs

and put it out. I have it on my iTunes I'm gonna

I'm gonna put it on my iPhone hook it up to my

42 inch TV, which looks fantastic I love it and

I'm gonna sit here and I'm gonna I'm gonna watch

Predator tonight It just makes me want to relive

it and I'll probably sit there with this little

toy in my hand Watching the movie just constantly

like I'm doing it right now. I'm standing here

I'm just talking about them and I'm just sitting

there moving them around moving his joints and

rotating this that and the other thing it's it's

just the amount of detail on here is Unsurpassed

it really is amazing to me how well this looks

I never got any of the other predator figures

from Alien vs. Predator Requiem none of those

movies I was never impressed enough with them

these things and if you follow me on Twitter

I posted a couple pictures of them. They just

look so cool. I mean ball jointed head Ball jointed

well not really ball jointed, but I don't even

know what you call this a pin and swivel joint

or something like that in the shoulders Articulated

the elbow rotates at the elbow the hands posable

waist Just an overall fantastic figure if you

guys like predator Did these things they just

look glorious and that is all I can't think of

anything else And he's ugly oh man he's ugly

I Mean it captures that pure. I mean he this

is the one that there's two other ones There's

a falconer and a berserker which are the other

subspecies of predator figures which are the

more dominant ones on the Predator's homeworld,

I suppose. And the classic one comes in this

first wave with his mask off, and he's got his

mouth opened up like he's screaming at Arnold

or something, and he's just ugly. He is ugly.

And I love it. I'm gonna have to look in iTunes

and see if I have Berserker and put it in this

episode at least 30 seconds of it. Aww. home

to sell up to monomus likes them on glee uh...

that uh... every time somebody says berserker

to me the only thing i can think of is friggin

clerks uh... it so i'm not spade only get coming

up for uh... you're you too stuff home and i

have a time of stuff coming up i've got on i

just recorded The War for Cybertron Megatron

review. I'm going to be recording the Darkmount

review. I am hard at work at my stop -motion

Armada Minicon Jamboree. I've got a review of

SH Figuarts Common Rider Extreme Cyclone Joker.

I've got a Sentai review coming up. Actually,

I've got a couple of Sentai reviews coming up.

I've got some Gundam reviews coming up. I've

got reviews coming out of the wazoo. Yeah, when

you first said Armada, I was like, no, he can't

be going back to Armada Prime and doing a stop

motion of that. No! Oh that reminds me, I need

to get started on my Armada Jetfire and Armada

Overload... Over... Overload? Overlord? Figures?

Off to bottom us, what do you got coming up for

your YouTube reviews? Oh, let's see, I'm working

on... Battle Cat? No, Battle Cat. We'll see.

I might just do a special video just for you.

Why am I just getting this image of like, Optimonymous

standing there and all of a sudden BattleCat

bursting into flames? I should do that, that

would be fun. Well yeah, I mean, I have done

random destruction videos of various things.

Let's see, what do I have? I'm presently working

on my Battle Blades bumblebee. I have a question.

I have a question for you. Is that a brand new

mold? A... Mostly. Like 75%. From the waist down

it's old, but from like the chest and arms are

new? Yes, I would say from the knees up is new.

Actually, look. I'm going to look. The legs have

a little bit of retooling, not much. Eh, no,

not even that. Yeah, it's just from the knees

up. From the knees up, you're looking at pretty

much a brand new figure. That's pretty much it.

It's a fantastic figure. I absolutely love it.

This is a deluxe version of the Human Alliance

Bumble Bee. There's nothing really bad about

the figure other than other than the fact that

one real weird thing is his The the battle blade

itself is upside down Okay Yeah, it's I'll let

you see the video. I'll let you watch it when

I when I get it done. It's the blade It's like

an act. It's like a blue energon axe Yeah, I

mean it's supposed to be an axe it's supposed

to be an axe But if you put his arm straight

out the axe blade is pointing up towards the

air You have to rotate his arm completely around

to have the blade facing down. It's really strange

So he's got a can opener then yeah Got that,

I'm working on that and then after that I'll

probably start with my Predator figures. Exciting

times! Yes, and I need to thank Octobotomus because

because of him I will actually have my very first

Masters of the Universe figure in over 25 years.

Yes, um... That makes me feel even better. Well,

really quick before we close, I... I was gonna...

No, I'll save that story for when we do, because

we will be doing a Masters of the Universe episode.

And Abdubadimus will be here for that, whether

he wants to or not. Exciting. So I'll save that

story. but um... he sent it to me because i had

watched one of his videos that he now no longer

let other people watch on youtube and he said

he had an extra adora and of course i'm thinking

well holy crap that was back in january there's

no way he still has this thing so i dm'd him

i said do you have that thing by any chance?

he goes yeah sure i'll send him out to you for

letting me be on the show i'm like oh cool or

send her not him wow that's a whole Yeah, yeah.

It's a girl. Yeah. Okay, so thank you for joining

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is... Until next time.