ToyCast
Summer Toy Hauls, Headmaster Bootlegs, and Masterpiece Soundwave Dreams
About this Episode
Cliffjumper, commence countdown. Five, four,
three, two... Hello and welcome to the 68th episode
of toy cast I am TF2 on Mike and joining me is
the goddamn proto man. Hello, sir Pretty good
pretty good. We have been officially back. This
will be the third episode that we've been back
The previous two episodes I've recorded with
Optobotomist and Spada While my text messaging
goes off. I wasn't expecting that So what have
you been up to, sir? Recently? Oh, well, TFCon
just ended not too long ago. I've just been kind
of just relaxing. God, what have I been doing?
I don't know. This and that has been coming in
the mail in terms of toys. I've been working
on my house recently. It's the end of summer.
Just relaxing, working, working on the house.
Nothing much, really. Maybe next month I'm going
to be going to some conventions, but this month
it's pretty dry in August. Yeah, this month isn't
really going to be too dry as far as toys though.
Oh no, of course not. Provided that we can find
them. Yeah, that's a whole other story. A fairly
good couple of weeks here in August. I finally
got SDCC Mighty Mugs Prowl. I've gotten, actually
my first Maddie Collector order, I got Cars Tune
Tokyo Mater, which is an SDCC exclusive from
this year. What else did I... Surprisingly enough,
I didn't realize it was going to come out this
soon, and it will probably be in a future episode
of Toycast. I had pre -ordered the Challenge
at Cybertron set, and it says on there, third
quarter 2010. Well, I don't know what BBTS considers
third quarter. I know fourth quarter is like...
October November December, so I guess third quarter
is July August and September I I don't know but
I hate when they and I don't think it's just
BBTS I think it's because of Hasbro and all or
Takara whoever makes these things, you know,
whatever toy company makes it I think that's
just what they give the sellers as a Potential
release date. I didn't expect to come out to
so soon. So I had to rush to the bank the other
day to make sure that I had enough money in there
because I get an email from BBTS, oh, your pre
-order is in. It is, you know, we're ready to
charge you. So, yeah. Oh, really? Yeah. And that
means mine are probably on their way, too, then.
I ordered from a Canadian source, but that's
fast. Yeah. They're actually showing in stock
on BBTS as of right now. That's interesting because
that set... while it's still kind of on the fence
of what its story is, the rumor is that it's
a Target exclusive and there's yet to be any
kind of like computer listings or anything to
show up yet. So, wow, either BBTS got it like
retardedly early or I don't know. That's crazy.
I don't know. I haven't gotten it yet as of this
recording, but when I get it, it will actually
be my very first classics hot rod mold outside
outside of the the the on spire and shatter glass
rodimus from bachon but yeah it'll be my uh...
my very first uh... classic sort of as hot rod
mold or whatever you want to call it all of all
of its like uh... i still think the henkei one
still nudges it out a little bit i still think
the henkei one's the best although you the one
you are getting is better than the classics I'm
not a fan of the classics one. The only reason
why I like the Henkei one is because it's It's
basically hot rod Yeah, there's a lot there's
a lot of aspects to it number one the clear plastic
the clear blue Yeah, which if you own the original
hot rod toy, that's it's purple Well, no, the
original Hot Rod. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay,
yeah. Yeah, G1. It's clear blue, which is a very
important aspect. As a kid, like I remember,
the first Hot Rod to I had had actually the whole
top piece busted off. It was broken. Thanks for
talking about that. Since I've got you on the
show, I actually have a question about G1 Hot
Rod now that I'm thinking about it. What's up?
I noticed this when I was doing I might have
been moving around or... I don't know. I got
this one off eBay. I paid $85 and it's just the...
I think it's just the original $86 one that...
I'm gonna turn my video on here so you can see
it. Why is... See the purple? It's not purple,
it's fade. It's fade. It's fade. Yeah, those
stickers, I have that on a few of mine because
I have multiple versions of it. What Mike is
showing me here, listeners, is on the side of
Hot Rod, I guess we could call it his doors,
if you will, there was two individual stickers
that were used. Sometimes those stickers throughout
the years, they fade and they come off as purple.
When they're on the original sticker sheet, they're
more of a red. But I don't know why that happens.
It's a very common thing hot rod has two pretty
much like bad sticker areas It's a shins which
they always friction out they get damaged. Yeah,
and those side doors I've seen a lot of those
like that. I have Just looking at my collection
right now one two, three four five six of the
original g1 not counting reissues or whatever
of the original Rodimus So it's a mix of target
master and non -target master in there, but I'd
have to count. But I know my original very first
Hot Rod toy I ever, ever got was a broken one
that I managed to get through a friend, and I
was happy to get that broken one. And looking
at that one right now, it has that purple fade
on it, but yet there's other ones that don't.
It's not a sticker variation or anything, it's
just that some of them fade in that area. Okay,
see I thought it was and of course I bought this
thing like Two years ago, so it's not like I
can go back to the guy now and say it's not a
bootleg It's not like it's not a repro label
if anything what that proves even more so what
you got is legitimate And so guys know and that's
fine I just thought that it might have been and
we're not really a bootleg But more of maybe
a variant, but no that is fine. That's and of
course I have plastic toe The only variants are
the the plastic toes and the metal toes That's
okay, and the the plat the metal toe version
Like mint on box. It was just advertised hot
rod the plastic toe version how you knew you
were getting the plastic toe version was they
also advertised on the box free glow -in -the
-dark poster so whenever you have a mitten box
hot rod that it advertises the glow -in -the
-dark poster for all you like you know you know
at mitten box collectors you know that that's
the plastic version you're getting yeah it's
just the toes that's it So yeah, I'm super excited
for that set, mainly because of the Classics
Rodimus and the Cyclonus, because let's all face
it, while the US version that we got for Cyclonus
was awesome, he was a little too dark, and while
the Takara version... Was a little too lavender.
Was a little too lavender girly, and this is
a nice combination... It's a nice middle ground.
The Galvatron I'm not too stoked about, but I'll
just put them against my regular G1 movie. Again,
it's one of those things where I think if you
have to pick... First of all, the mold isn't
that super to begin with, but if you had to pick
one... I think the Henkei one kind of beats it
out because they they colored still the the the
Canon better in the Henkei one Yeah, it's a lot
more of us emphasis on the orange The chrome
just works in better areas because the original
g1 Galvatron had silver stickers and chrome on
it So it just it it captures more that where
I do agree with you where this one that's coming
out Kind of I find that this one that is coming
out of cyclonus really captures how he looked
in the movie. A lot of people don't notice, but
the colors that were used, mind you, was season
three, and season three was kind of jumpy back
and forth when it came to colors, though. But
at least in the movie, cyclonists had a really,
really, I guess it's called a gritty purple.
I don't even know how to describe it. A very
light purple mixed with mild amounts of gray.
And this captures that perfectly. Yeah, that's
that really gets that movie 86 cyclonus Yeah,
the only the lavender one maybe it was a animation
mistake from Nelson shins season 3 The only thing
that I have a complaint against this this version
of the of the clarotomous mold Why is the window
just a blue paint and not translucent? That it's
one of the two things that bother me about number
one. It's it's the windows It's like a baby blue
that really bothers me and they also went out
of their way because I said to myself Okay, so
that means that the windows are baby blue. What
do they do with the rest of the clear plastic
areas? That's the problem. The missile is a baby
blue. Yeah, and when you see when you have that
in robot mode and you have this Rodimus figure
holding his gun, and then you got this flaming
baby blue missile sticking out. It looks, I've
seen the pictures, it looks so weird, it really
does. Where, again, the NK1 accredited, it's
got that clear blue plastic that makes it dead
on like the original. I mean, to its credit,
to its credit, this new one that's coming out,
this Challenger Cybertron one, it's got a very
nice red on it. that's very reminiscent of Rodimus
Prime, not so much Hot Rod. Rodimus Prime, especially
in the Marvel comic books, had a very strong
red and a very strong yellow. I kind of get that
vibe from it. This is a very Rodimus Prime Marvel
Comics color scheme, minus that baby blue coloring
there. And the Henkei one is very Hot Rod. Especially
in toy form. And that gold chrome spoiler, I
can't stress that enough. That thing just shimmers.
It's absolutely amazing. And while I'm excited
about this new Hot Rod, I'm happy that people
will have an opportunity to pick up this character.
Also, a lot of people were worried if it's going
to work with Protector or not. I have to reassure
people one thing is that... between the three
Rotimuses, there's very few paint application
differences compared to say Henke Convoy and
Classics Optimus. There's big differences between
the two there. Like if you use... If you use
the TFCon exclusive or the Dia Commander, Powered
Commander, whatever you want to call it, with
HenK Optimus, you notice the color differences
that don't match instead of using the Classics
one. Where I don't really see how a fans project
could paint the trailer in a way that would hinder
if you use the HenK one or the Classics one.
or even this new Sons of Cybertron one, because
the trailer has always been its own kind of different
thing. So I wouldn't worry about it. I think
that the fans are very lucky now. They're going
to get a chance. For those who didn't pick up
classic Rotomus in the past or the NK1 when it
was cheaper, now they're going to get a chance
to pick it up and get a little bonus with it.
Hey, you know, worst case scenario, you buy the
set for what is it going for, like $54 or something?
It's $54 .98 after tax. and if you could somehow
sell cyclones and galvatron if you're not too
keen on them you know you're pretty much buying
a erotimus at retail you know so it's pretty
sweet actually see see that's my problem the
only one that I and I couldn't get two sets of
these things I just couldn't so I'd only pre
-ordered one so only getting one of these sets
and my only issue is I need another one for another
Hot Rod and Cyclonus and then I'm stuck with
two Galvatrons. I'm in the same boat. I'll keep
one of the Galvatrons just to have it to put
it up against my G1 Takara movie color Galvatron
because that's the one I have. I don't have the
original G1 Galvatron because the colors on that
toy suck. I ordered three of these and right
away I posted on Twitter, I was like, so... who
wants a spare Galvatron and Cyclonus? If you
want to give me Cyclonus, I'll take it. I have
Montreal locals that are already like, jumping.
Fucking Canadians. They should have jumped on
it right away because I had a few months... Right
here! It's just easier for me. So why don't you
tell us your... First of all, why do you think
that we're getting the... crystal set of animated
erotimus before the actual official release see
the funny thing with that is uh... i used to
always say this about the japanese and it rings
true is uh... japan because it's a small country
they are the kings of shipping dates Every single
transformer series since like I would say car
robots because I know we haven't really been
keeping track like since Beast Wars and stuff
But I know since the days of car robots They
were always very good with like an episode would
come out on because transformers are every weekend
That's how they work every weekend is an episode
that they're 52 episodes for 52 days of the week
Yeah, that's how the Japanese shows are. That's
why I like energon Cybertron Armada and Robots
in the Skies, they're Japanese versions, they're
52 episodes, because they correspond to 52 days
out of the year for Japan. They would always
come out on a Saturday. And whatever episode
that was, say, give an example of car robots
known as Robots in the Skies, it would be Indy
Heats Race, also known as Skid -Z. They would
make sure that... Weekend that day after on the
Sunday in Toys R Us in every toy store in Japan
Indie heats toy also known as skid Z would come
out Like they were always amazing with that and
and you say that like wow that's amazing But
you have to realize it's Japan one time zone
small country. We're not talking the United States
of America or Canada, which is Humongous with
multiple time zones and multiple shipping dates
and trucks that would have to travel I mean to
travel across all of Japan would take you like
10 hours to cross the entire United States of
America. It's a three day trip. So just to give
you an idea of how easy it is for them to do
that. Now what I'm getting at with all of this
is that they're usually amazing with that when
it comes to figure releases. Animated, when it
came out in Japan, they actually changed the
order of the episodes. to that way they could
put out more figures. So you have episodes one,
two, and three of animated, like the movie if
you want to call it that, that like first three
episodes. Yeah, Transform and Roll Out. Yeah.
And then the fourth episode was Sound and Fury,
the Soundwave episode. Oh, wow. Yeah, the reason
why they did that, if you look at all like episode
five, six, seven, and eight, it's the Sound and
Fury episode, lockdowns episode. Black Arachnia's
episode, and the episode that features Blitzwing
and Lugnut in more focus, because they wanted
to make sure that when those first chunk of episodes
come out, you got toys on the shelf, bang, bang,
bang, bang, bang, right away. So the thing is
that they're very far off from Rodimus coming
out. They're not even close to season three yet.
They're still, I believe, as of this weekend,
they're at episode 19. So if we were 13 13 13,
they're still in season 2 Yeah, they're still
in season 2 again. They're or but again I can't
tell you which is episode exactly because their
order is different They're not they're not near
season 3 yet So what they're waiting for is when
they're gonna release that actual solid Rodimus
figure will be when the episode Trans war part
1 and whatever they're gonna call it in Japan
when that episode comes out When season 3 comes
out there, that's when we're going to get the
Rodimus figure. Till then, we're not going to
see it. It's the same thing. A lot of people
are really excited about the Winged Blade Optimus
coming out. And they're like, oh, when is that
coming out? When is that coming out? When the
last episode of Animated airs in Japan, pretty
much. They always do that. They always wait for
the right time and the right moment because the
kids, they watch the cartoon on Saturday, it
gets in their blood, and then they go out to
the stores on Sunday and buy that amazing character
they saw on TV. And it's not just Transformers.
The Japanese do that with everything, from Gundam
to Pokemon. It's just genius marketing, and they've
been doing that for years and years and years.
I think that's the reason why we got this crystal
set first, was that they wanted to do this Transformers
2010 promotion to pretty much hype up the year
2010. And I think by the time season three rolls
around, I'd have to do the math right now, but
one, two, three, four, five, six, seven. So he's
doing math. it what it's just cuz i think by
the time two thousand ten runs up uh... they
won't be a season three yet well really like
i think they'll already be in two thousand eleven
they wanted to do this promotion i mean the two
thousand ten year like i always tell people this
is the year of rotters we've got so much rotters
related merchandise this year it's it's unbelievable
it really is from You know animated to Japanese
animated to the clear set to the sons of Cybertron
Classics clear set to the challenge of Cybertron
set to the protector armor that's coming out
I mean, it's just it's if and not to mention
the sweep mode optimus that that has the Rodimus
sticker on his on his on his communicator, and
then on top of that, we even have the preview
of a masterpiece Rodimus coming out. So it really
is, 2010 is the year of Rodimus. And at TFCon,
we even had a Rodimus cake, just to top it all
off. It really was the year of Rodimus this year,
and I think that they wanted to... put out that
2010 Suns of Sarbatron clear animated set as
soon as possible while it's still 2010. Because
I think by the time Christmas rolls around, I
think we're still in Season 2, if I do the math
correctly. Yeah, we're still in Season 2. I think
that's the logical explanation. That's the only
thing I can really figure out is the way that
they do release dates. Yeah, and one other erotimous
thing I want to bring up before you go into your
pre -order story is, I had, um... Somebody had
mentioned, and this episode may happen soon,
I don't know exactly how soon of Toycast it'll
happen, but somebody mentioned that we should
do a Puggle Formers episode. And I said, and
Puggle Formers is made by Callie, I don't have
her last name off the top of my head at this
point, she's on Twitter, and... said well I would
have to have you know for me to you know properly
interview her and talk to her and ask her about
all you know how this all started I would have
to have a sample in hand she's like oh I'll make
you one you know what do you want and I was thinking
and I was thinking thing and thing I'm like oh
can you do Shattered Glass Rodimus and I sent
her to the TFWiki page that shows the comic page
of his face and she goes yeah I think I can pull
that off and like the next week I got shattered
glass rodimus bugle former in the mail and he
is super awesome and you uh... you comment on
our dvd art son of a yeah because you know it's
funny cuz uh... at t f con uh... general techno
he brought a few of them he brought up for sure
the lug nut one he had and i know another girl
had one too and I was looking at them, and I'm
like, oh, these are really cool. And I thought
they were just kind of animated based, because
I think the other one was an animated Bumblebee.
And I didn't know who made it, what the story
was. But I was like, oh, I wonder if one day
they'll make an animated Rodimus one. And that
just kind of went over my head, da da da, da
da da. And then I see this one, and I'm like,
son of a. I mean, honestly, did you expect anything
less from me? I mean, come on, look at that,
man. Did you really? I mean, look. You know what
I love about it? I love that she put the spoiler
on the back. Because a lot of the other Puggle
Formers that I've seen, they don't put emphasis
on their accessories, really. They just kind
of focus on the face. But yet, it's almost like
she's like, I can't leave out the spoiler. Well,
no, it wasn't that. I asked her if she could
put it on there. Okay cool because because I
had asked her the one that um Nitro Street got
was it was a flame war one because she likes
the character of flame war and I asked Callie
and I said what what are the two things behind
her ears and she's like Oh, what are you talking
about? I said there's two things like there's
the ears and then there's something behind them.
She goes. Oh those are the jet vents Like what
like when the seekers in robot mode like on Starscream
how he has his his intake his air intakes on
his chest Yeah. For G1 Starscream? Mhm. You know
what I'm talking about? Yeah, I know, like, on
his shoulders, kind of. Yeah. So I asked her,
I said, is there any way that you could possibly
put Ronimus's spoiler on there? She goes, I think
I can do it, so. And the other request I had,
obviously, was the purple flame with the Autobot
symbol, because that's just awesome. Oh, yeah,
that's awesome. But, yeah, so what's the deal
with your pre -ordering, dude? So, funny story,
and you can even see it in Vangelis' video, he's
kind of like trolling. First of all, I'm on WTF,
on TFW, the latest one, the podcast 107, and
on his recent review of... of the Crystal Sons
of Cybertron 2 -pack from Animated, Vangelis
and Gogog kind of play a little joke trolling
on me because recently when those sets were first
announced on pre -order, I kind of was like shopping
around a bit because while everyone kind of scrambled
and bought their pre -order right away, me, I
shop around because I'm going to buy multiples.
So if I'm going to buy multiples, I mean the
amount of money I save if I go to somewhere that's
really good would be the equivalency of getting
an extra one. So I shopped around for a bit,
and then I can't even remember who suggested
AmiAmi to me. But someone suggested it to me,
saying they had the best prices and the shipping
wasn't too bad. And I looked at it, and I'm like,
yeah, if I buy three of them, the money I save
is the equivalent of a fourth one almost. So
I was like, OK, I went with them, and I ordered
four of them. I was like, you know what? The
money I'm saving, I'm going to order four and
I'll see what happens. I ordered four of them
and their system, how they work is they don't
take the money right away. They just contact
you when the stock comes and then you pay right
there and then they ship it out. Time passes,
like most pre -orders, I just sit on my hands
and wait for them to inform me. And next thing
you know, I have some other people going, oh,
my Rodimus is on the way in the mail. And I'm
like, huh, they didn't even, like, contact me
yet. Oh, well, maybe they're just getting around
to me. I was kind of late to the game, right?
So I'm waiting a little longer, and like, Gogdog
is like, oh. Got the letter receipt in the mail.
It's gonna be you know like it's at the post
office right now And I'm like what the fuck you
know like what's going on here, right? And then
Vangelis is like up mines in the mail now, and
I'm like okay something's not right I waited
a couple of days, and then I got an email from
AmiAmi and AmiAmi is a Japanese company And they
have someone who obviously speaks kind of broken
English working there, and it was like like typical
Japanese like Like email is with deepest apologies.
We regret to inform you that our stock inventory
Okay, I have to pull it up. Like where is it?
It was like with with green hair. Hold on With
deepest apologies our stock inventory could not
meet the demand yada yada yada just telling us
that they couldn't meet the demand of my thing
and they couldn't even give me one, they couldn't
give me four. And then on the end of all of that,
they didn't even say, we'll contact you when
we do get or we'll let you know when there is.
It was just like, sorry, we couldn't get it for
you, my bad. And I was like, you gotta be kidding
me. Then what was the point of a pre -order?
you know what what is that like really what is
the point of pre -order at that point you know
and it sucked because i wasted my time with these
people well everyone else went and pre -ordered
and got their items i sat on my hands expecting
my item to come when i could have what would
be bts or tf source or automatron or any company
you know and but i want with them because i was
going to put my you know my eggs in one basket
with them and they failed me and and that really
you know angry they recently emailed me and told
me one of the pre -order guys bailed out like
as i think they they contact the guy saying to
pay for it and then they have a week to contact
back and so one person fell through and so they're
like what lucky you one of our pre -orders fell
through so you could get one But I don't want
one. I want four. So I'm not going to buy one
from you and then have to spend shipping just
all the way from Japan for one item that's probably
going to get doodied on me anyways when I get
over here. I might as well get all four and have
that happen to me. So I told them, you know what?
You guys, you failed me. Now I'm going to fail
you. I'm sorry. The money's going elsewhere.
And I'm going to go to BBTS, I think. They haven't
failed me yet. You should have done that in the
first place, dude. I understand your thinking
of tracks. I know, that's it. It was like, wow,
I should have just went with them in the first
place. So, I mean, maybe my experience is a unique
one, but so far I've had, you know, amy amy,
I'm not impressed. That's really, you know, you
don't take pre -orders for something and then
tell the people afterwards. that you don't have
to stock like I know other places they take pre
-orders and during the pre -order session when
they did feel that they can't get any more from
their pre -order numbers they say out of stock
or sold out I've every website does this and
it really peaves me off that they would do something
like that you know that they would take more
than they can handle yeah that's not that's not
good It isn't. Well, right now, thanks to P .A
.W., he kind of suggested some places. And I
know another guy named TechnoCorp or something,
he also suggested some places. So I'm shopping
around for it. Luckily, it's not like missing
classics for autumus or something, or if you
miss your chance, it's going to be super expensive
afterwards. Yeah. So it's still cheap. I'm still
looking around. The prices are still reasonable.
It's now the hunt begins. I'm gonna find something
definitely by the end of the week. I know this
weekend I'll do some looking. Yeah, I'm I'm not
too sure on on the on the crystal one. I just
Everyone ran to get it because It was the first
taste of Rotomus. I don't sure if everyone got
the Rotomus figure Prior like the the Toys R
Us one or even the J Japanese one I'm pretty
sure everyone would kind of skim over this one
You know, it's it's it's it's more just because
everyone wants to get that first taste of the
figure in any form, right? And that's that's
the way to get it where and it's you know And
I don't want to knock it but the boxes, you know,
like the box that comes in is your atypical Japanese
box It's not like some bot con, you know window
door box or something. It's a very simple box
You know, so with the 2010, you know anniversary
logo on it, but I mean again The hype comes from
a figure that no one has touched yet. It doesn't
come from the fact that It's something everyone
wants. It's just they want a Rodimus regardless
of it's kind of like the classics clear one before
we knew about the challenge of Cybertron set
we saw that classics clear one Yeah, everyone
was all like I got like when it was when we when
it appeared in the Philippines at a convention
And everyone was like I got to get that one,
you know Because everyone just wanted to get
their hands on the mold in any shape or form
because it was so expensive where You know now
that we know what it is and everything. I'm there's
not a big demand for it I've looked and you know
the classics clear said it you know I think the
going price is like 45 bucks, which is very good
considering It's a Voyager and a deluxe from
Japan But you know there's no big demand for
it because everyone's gonna get that challenge
of Cybertron one for pretty much the same price
Yeah, but I mean as far as the the crystal clear
animated one it It looks good. It actually because
I was like you were watching Vangelis review
of it and so was I But when Vangelis showed off
the back part and he was saying something about
it's a very slim figure There's very little backpack
stuff on it and I agree But I just I don't know
if it's something that I mean I can wait for
the US release and I'm sorry I'm not gonna go
out there and pay like if BBTS is my only option.
I'll do it if i have the money obviously but
if it's something i can wait for and try to hunt
down like I don't know. It's something I'll tell
the listeners to don't worry about this one because
even though it's clear and it's crystal and it's
all special and everything it really isn't Limited
like some of like there's been clear stuff done
in the past But they've always been like e hobby
exclusives or lucky draws or some kind of like
Toys R Us exclusive. These are basic retail you
go to you go to any store in japan right now
and these are on the shelves right now next everything
else it's it's like uh... it's like finding the
clear lockdown you know to pack from animated
you know what i mean it's just it's nothing super
rare it's just it's one of those other things
that are in mass retail so that being said in
the future it's not going to be uh... inexpensive
item It's not going to be something that you're
going to regret later because, number one, everyone
in its core form really just wants to get that
actual colored Rodimus. And so that being said,
well, what about the queer one? Well, due to
the fact that the queer one isn't rare in terms
of numbers, I don't see it being a tough eye.
It's kind of like Shadow Panther. Shadow Panther
isn't a Japanese exclusive figure that's different
from anything we got in America. But at the same
time, Because he was a regular retail figure,
you could pick up Shadow Panther as cheap as
$14 .99 at even a BotCon. Even though he's like
he's more than like 16 year old toy from Beast
Wars that was technically a Japanese exclusive.
But because he was in retail, he's not that difficult.
Yeah, yeah. I wouldn't worry about it. I would
wait. Unless you're someone that's like me, that's
like when it comes to Artemis stuff, I don't
wait. uh... well yeah but you know that i'm i'm
i'm i'm i'm i'm i'm i'm i'm i'm i'm i'm i'm i'm
i'm i'm i'm i'm i'm i'm i'm i'm i'm i'm i'm i'm
i'm i'm I'll wait. I'm not in a rush. Sure, if
I was there, I might pick up the War for Cybertron
Prime and drift right away, and maybe the Bumblebee,
and then end up with the Thrust, and that's usually
how I pick up one, and then I leave with all
of them. But I was like, you know what? I'll
wait. I go to conventions. Usually they're cheaper,
no tax. You have to realize in Canada, tax is
a lot more too, so that's a big difference when
we say no tax. I mean, states, I think, what
is it? Well, how much is tax for you in your
area? If I go to a store and buy stuff, it's
6%. Wow, it's 13 here. But if I order, and this
is funny now, I don't know how they get away
with this, and maybe it's the shipping, but every
time I've ordered through BBTS, they don't charge
tax. Oh, because usually, if long as BBTS says
it's a used item in the box or a gift, you can
get away with it. Lot of times they do that,
but it's just you know taxes are expensive there
so in Canada a leader class toy is 69 .99 Plus
tax so that's another 13 percent on 69 .99 it
comes almost $80 now you go to the states how
much is a leader class toy? Well, I don't know
about the current leader class toys, but... I
think they're 39, if I remember correctly. Yeah,
when Animated was big, and we had Megatron, Bulkhead,
and Magnus, and then Roadbuster Magnus, they
were $39 .99 each. There you go. And then the
6 % tax instead of 14. It's 48 something. Yeah,
it's a huge difference in money. So a lot of
times, I'm willing to wait to do a big American
run. Like I know one time I went to the States
and I literally it was the tail end of the movie
line going into Revenge of the Fallen and I bought
like $400 in Transformers and then I sat down
in the hotel and I added up how much I bought
Like figure by figure and then I added up how
much I bought if I bought those same figures
in Canada And then how much I saved I saved $300
from a $400 purchase Like imagine if I would
have bought the same stuff in Canada would have
been 700 bucks like and I know it's been all
and me I live very close to the border Montreal
you just go over the border and let in less than
45 minutes here in Plattsburgh, which is a great
little place to shop and It's just you know,
I'm willing to wait, but with those Rodimus's
I can't wait Yeah, so let's get into display
case here and I guess I'm going to go first and
I'm going to be talking about... Crap. Thank
god that's not my smoke detector. I'm going to
be talking about Mighty Mugs Prowl. And I just
call him Mighty Mugs Prowl even though Hasbro
and Hasbro Toy Shop has touted him as an SDCC
exclusive. He does not have the Comic Con logo
sticker anywhere on his box. even though he has
the silver backed insert cardboard he does not
have the comic -con sticker anywhere on the box
and I've seen one other because I did a video
of him earlier well be a couple weeks ago as
of this recording but I saw one other video that's
mentioned the same thing so I went back and I
looked at my because I have the SDCC 09 Wolverine
And Wolverine has the Comic -Con sticker on the
window in the box right below his name. Prowl
does not. I'm thinking that he doesn't because
he was originally meant to be a wave 4 item with
Ironhide. Now we haven't got confirmation that
Ironhide is going to happen in Mighty Mug form,
but I've seen pictures of mock -ups of him. So...
But yeah, Prowl... Is I don't know just I'm trying
I'm trying to look through the BotCon photos
right now because proud was on display at Photos
so I'm trying to see if his box had the sticker
even at that point. I have the BotCon photos
somewhere No, see he doesn't have it either there.
Yeah, that's interesting So that they probably
cuz I know for BotCon they probably put in what
they probably wouldn't put the sticker They're
advertising another convention. Yeah But, huh,
that is, uh... That is interesting, man. Yes.
So, Prowl is... He's pretty much the jazz mold,
obviously. I mean... I mean, seriously, we all
know that Mighty Mugs, they're pretty much...
repaints of the basic mold, and yes, on some
of them like Prowl and Jazz and Movie Bumblebee
and Starscream, they... mold features into the
mold like the doors and stuff but I mean other
than that it's pretty much the same you know
blank mold Reep just painted his different characters
but Prowl he is his G1 self he does have his
blaster he's got police all over himself I know
he was a police car, but I mean it says police
on his chest It says highway patrol on his legs.
It says pole and then ice on his right and left
leg He's got Two Autobot symbols on him one on
his chest and then one on his leg above the patrol
He's uh He's got red and red and blue lights
all over him He's got sheriff stars all over
him on his arms. He's got one on the back of
his head But he's he's very very cool, you know,
I'm trying to keep Now that I'm actually starting
to get more toys, I am trying to keep the muddy
mug stuff down, but there's just a couple as
of recently that I've gotten that I haven't had
yet. Obviously, Prowl was one of them. I hadn't
yet picked up the Iron Man Mark 6 that they released
as a Toys R Us exclusive, but I've got him now,
so I'll do him in a future episode. Oh, that
sounds horrible. review him in a future episode
there we go um but yeah prowl is is very very
cool and like i said when he first came in the
in the package and even just having him out of
the box because i as everybody knows these are
the only boxes i save the box itself is very
shiny i mean like it it has some some weird sheen
to it even not on the the the silverish parts
of the box. It looks like it's still in plastic,
but it's not. It's very, very cool. And one of
the differences between this box and all the
other boxes is he has a slightly large bio on
him. And I've never seen this on any of the Mighty
Mug boxes. Normally they'll have like a Transformers
logo or they're not a logo, but a Transformers
saying. Or in the case of the Iron Man and War
Machine ones from Toys R Us, it says, heroes
aren't born, they're built. And then it shows
you the other two in the line or the other three
in the line. This one has not only a bio, but
a saying that Prowl said, apparently. Logic is
the ultimate weapon. There is no problem so intractable
that a calm, intelligent mind can't extricate
itself. uh... patient analysis combined with
considered action will be the blades that remove
the cancer of the decepticons stand with me autobots
and let us let's show those savages what a superior
mine can do never i don't know if that's from
his original bio on his original g one box i
i've never heard prowl say that in g one i'd
i'd i don't know where that comes from You know,
it's very interesting, too, that they made the
boxes like that. The thing is, is that were any
of the... See, the problem is I can't compare
because in America, Mighty Mug boxes are generic.
You mean in Canada. Yeah, yeah, yeah. What was
I saying? Did I say America? Yeah. Okay. Sorry.
In Canada, the boxes are very generic, so I'm
not used to any kind of individual... packaging
to them, but have any of the recent Mighty Mugs
that are not Transformers related have been like
that in retail? Do you know at all? I did just
get Iron Man. Where did I put his box? Let's
see here. And like I said, Iron Man is pretty
much the, he's the generic, the only difference
between, I mean, the only thing with Iron Man...
most of the mugs that come from Toys R Us is
that they say oops you know Toys R Us exclusive
that's the only difference let me get this window
out of the way here so I can but I mean as you
can see here's the the bottom of the box here
where it says heroes aren't born they're built
and then it shows the the two figures that are
in this little line and the Mighty Mugs logo
is just like emblazoned on there it's not It's
it's some sort of sticker type of feel whereas
the prowl box Normally the SDCC symbol would
be right here where my finger is it's not there
and This here where I'm showing you see how the
metal is on the on the mighty mugs thing. It's
silver. It's not metal, but it's silver and then
on the buck and the on the back it's got this
large bio where the other two things or other
three in the line should be i think maybe it's
because there's a very strong chance that this
prowl might be the last uh transformer mighty
mug for a long while that maybe they wanted to
go out with a bang it's a possibility Let's hope
not. I know. I'd love to see more. I think it's
a very cute idea. Not to mention, it's not difficult
to engineer those. I mean, I bet you to engineer
probably like 50 of those is the equivalency
of one transformer. Yeah, yeah. I mean, they're
not tough to do. I mean, they made jazz out of
Bumblebee, so that says a lot right there. Yeah.
The only... I don't really have any complaints
about the figure, I'm glad I have them, but as
far as the future of Transformers mugs, I could
have sworn I saw like a tempo image of Ironhide
or some sort of image of Ironhide, because I
thought at the time that they were going to make
Wave 4 out of Ironhide and Prowl here. Well the
movie wave was in with Wave 3. Wave 3 was Shockwave,
Jazz, Movie Prime, and Bumblebee. I don't remember
them announcing anything else. I don't seem to
remember like the Ironhide or anything because
all I remember was you had the exclusive ones
that came out like you had the Metallic Optimus
Prime that I think was last year's San Diego
Comic -Con. And then, uh, Derek J. Wyatt had
one made for himself. I know that. Yeah, but
I mean, you really can't count that, seeing as
how only... Well, it was made by Hasbro, and
it was a one -of -a -kind, and it was presented
to Derek J. Wyatt. I know, and that's what I'm
saying, so you really can't count that as a release,
because none of the rest of us are gonna have
that. Um, and I think that's it, because, like,
the ones that were planned, um, eventually did
get released. I don't remember an Ironhide, though.
Could have swore I saw somewhere I don't know
where it was because I saw a picture of prowl
Potential, but this was before it was even finalized
that he was gonna be an SDCC exclusive I saw
a picture of him and I saw something that Some
sort of mock -up that might have been iron hide.
I don't remember it's been so long, but I just
I Don't get why has bro. I mean this isn't robot
heroes. I mean these mighty mugs are fairly Well,
and I'm not dissing robot heroes. Robot heroes
is awesome. They need to bring that back. But
they specifically said that robot heroes isn't
coming back. I found them. Here they are. You
are right. They were from the Chinese factory.
Ironhide and Prowl were supposed to be a set
together. And then Ironhide got discontinued.
Then they went with Prowl to be the San Diego
Comic -Con figure. So yeah, Ironhide's the straggler.
He's all that's left. And Ironhide came with...
Who's gun is that? I think that's B's gun. No,
B didn't have a gun. Oh, like, uh... Shit, whose
gun is that? Oh, you mean from the cartoon? No,
no, I'm saying, uh, for Ironhide. Like, whose
mold is that that they're using that gun from?
Uh, it's probably Jazz, or... Yeah, it's gotta
be Jazz, because that kinda looks like Jazz's
gun a little bit. But anyway point is is that
I don't understand why prowl and now potentially
iron hide are gonna be the last of the Transformers
one you still have so many decepticons that you
could repaint the Starscream wings. The seeker
jets, yeah. For Thundercracker and Skywarp and
Dirt. If you want a slipstream, because now she's
G1 Cannon too. But I mean, I'm saying, I don't
understand if there's... For me, I love them.
Honestly, Mighty Mugs are probably half of my
collection. I know that's sad, but everything
else is really expensive, damn it. But, you know,
you and I had said, you know, you have a custom,
someone made you a custom Rodimus one. I don't
understand. See, that's what kind of bugs me
about Prowl. While Prowl is an awesome character
and Michael Bell did an awesome job voicing him,
why was Prowl chosen to be an SDCC exclusive
when you have... More predominant characters
Galvatron Rodimus, you know, I Don't understand
why they're why they're stopping now with these,
you know, I Don't know not only that too. I sometimes
I look at the Starscream one even and I say to
myself I'm pretty sure if they played it right.
They could have pulled off a decent hot rod Like
even because you know, so let's say they didn't
want to have to engineer a hot rod, right? So
let's say they're so lazy over there that they
didn't want to have to work out the spoiler or
something I think that they could make a not
too bad hot rod using the Starscream mold even
yeah, like I think you know if you give it the
yellow Wings and you just kind of like if you
you know Where there normally would not be the
connection you just paint over to make it look
like there's a connection And then, again, paint
application, the Tri Blaster, so you don't have
to give them a gun, because Starscream didn't
come with a gun, so you don't have to worry about
that. Not to mention, it already has the basic
shape of his helmet, it's the round head. I say
to myself, if Mighty Mugs is all under the same
banner, If they all have the same molds and all
the molds are at their disposal. I'm not just
talking the transformer ones. I'm talking the
GI Joe one. Yeah, the Star Wars one. I'm pretty
sure you could you could look at a Star Wars
one and there must be one Star Wars one that
you could look at it and go, you know what? That
worked for Galvatron. You know, like I'm pretty
sure like the Vader one or something. If you
kind of like if you kind of stripped it down,
right? If you kind of like saw it as a blank
slate. Right. You know what? Maybe that worked
for Vader. Is there a Galactus Mighty Mug? Yep.
Do I have to say what I'm thinking? You know
what I mean? I'm pretty sure the tools are there.
It's just that maybe the interest isn't. I don't
know. Me personally, I love it. I love Mighty
Mugs, but maybe the interest isn't there. Maybe
the sales weren't there. Who knows? I know Star
Wars fans will buy anything, so that's why, you
know. Yeah, and the other thing is they could
do, I don't know if they would do this, you know,
you mentioned how to make Galvatron. Take the
Megatron mold, repaint it, because I mean, honestly,
Galvatron's cannon arm came off just like Megatron's
did. That's true, too. So, I mean, it's not like
that they would have to stretch so far. And like,
you know, and I've said this before on this show,
All of the Mighty Mugs, especially Marvel and
Transformers, the Marvel ones and the Transformers
ones, those molds are pretty much interchangeable.
If you look at Ghost Rider and Human Torch side
by side, it's the same mold painted as different
characters. Well, that's just it. Like, I figure
that, you know, they're all under the same banner.
They all have... It's kind of like how G .I.
Joe, how they swap arms and legs for different
characters and make new characters out of it.
I know the old Joes. If you go to YoJo .com,
they'll be like, okay, this figure was made from
Flint's legs and Lady J's arms. No, it's true.
And then they'll repaint it and they'll sell
it as a new character. And this is official.
That's their toys. That's how they do things.
Where I assume that Mighty Mugs is kind of the
same process where... I could see use a Wolverine
arm for one leg, you know, and I was going to
use a Wolverine, like, hand for one arm and use
another. Like, I'm pretty sure you can mix and
match and create stuff that, again, if you saw
it as a blank, like nothing, no details, nothing,
you could probably interpret a many, a many lot
of different characters from it. Yeah, and, and,
uh, BBTS even see, they used to sell the blank
white and the blank black Mighty Mug. They didn't
sell, like, Obviously like with prowl doors and
stuff, but I mean as far as like say just painting
an optimus prime Take a blank black or a blank
white one and you can you know, as long as you
know optimus's colors You can paint the blunt
the the blank black mighty mug mold as optimus
prime Not to mention look what they do, you know
the fact that they went out of their way to engineer
What was shockwave? I mean look at that hand.
I know it. Yeah, I mean they could have went
the lazy route and just painted Hand purple,
I know They actually went they went the full
nine yards and they engineered that separate,
you know hand that has no repaint potential Across
the spectrum. Oh, no, unless you want to like,
you know welding edition cup or something, you
know, like a welding Potamus, you know, like
I mean there's there really is nothing you could
do with that and yet they did so I mean Like
I said, the engineering costs even to make new
stuff is minimal compared to what one Scout probably
costs in engineering and design. So I think that
the sad truth of it all is it's more just maybe
there was no demand in the transformer market
for Mighty Mugs. Maybe there is a demand, but
not enough to garner mass release. So maybe we're
going to see Ironhide next year. And then maybe,
like San Diego Comic Con 2011, and then in 2012
maybe they'll throw us a bone and give us a new
character. Who knows? Like, you know, 2011 is
gonna be a movie year, so. Yeah. And the thing
is, though, you know, you're saying maybe it's
not in that high of a demand. You know what the
issue is, really, outside of online retailers?
Toys R Us is the only store I have ever seen
these things at. The transformer ones? Any of
them. Mighty Mugs in general. In Canada, I've
seen them in Walmart also. But yeah, Toys R Us
is the predominant one. Now you can't find them
anywhere. When I went to Toys R Us with a friend
of mine, and we were actually stupidly on the
hunt for the... Our boy there that is eluding
us, the real paint of Rodimus Animated, which
again, it was a fruitless effort, but that's
when I found the Iron Man Mark VI. They had pretty
much the Wave 3 figures and a couple of the original
G1 Bumblebees. They had Movie Prime, Movie Bumblebee,
one Shockwave and Jazz, and that was it. See,
I'm amazed that even after all that time, they're
still present there. How much did they go for
there? Uh, $11 .99. They're not on clearance
yet? No. Gotta get me a shockwave. Anyways. I,
um, and Prowl, I mean, you know, honestly, I
think, I think the most I've ever paid for an
individual one was probably maybe $25. They're
very inexpensive when you consider that an expensive
exclusive one runs you $25. I mean geez that's
some transformer toys at retail Yeah, well prowl
himself. He was only $15 .99 on HDS. That's I
mean, it's it's a very Economical thing to collect
yeah, I find that they're very ingenious. There's
a lot of potential behind it I don't know if
the actual designers are aware of the potential
behind it, but there's a lot of potential behind
it for any line. I mean, again, you could take
anything from one line and you could use it in
the next. You could take some of those transformer
ones and maybe even use it for Star Wars characters.
Who knows? It's a good line. And I think the
only reason why we will never see outside of
custom stuff will never see uh... dc ones is
because dc goes with mattel which kind of sucks
but overall prowl is very very cool uh... i really
don't count the two movie figures money most
as i just i'd i'm still on the kick that movie
line does not need to be in everything uh...
so i don't count them in my auto bot army so
i have off to regular june optimist jazz bumblebee,
Grimlock, and now Prowl. They actually outnumber
Megatron, Soundwave, Starscream, and Shockwave.
So it's five to four. And if they release Ironhide,
it'll be six to four. So they need to start making
some Decepticons here. Make some Seeker jets
come from the Seekers, at least, and then balance
the power. There you go. So let's move on off
the Mighty Mugs, because I know people are probably
screaming at their iPods. Stop talking about
Mighty Mugs, damn it. uh... so what are you going
to be reviewing sir well i'm gonna go along the
route of a third party release of transformer
related stuff i'd recently uh... i recently picked
up the headmasters uh... box set and what i'm
referring to is not the television series or
something the uh... planet master super warriors
headmaster box set and uh... what this is exactly
is it's a chinese reissue of a very high quality
of the original six super rare headmaster toys
from 1987, a reissue of Zarek and Spike, the
heads for Fortress Maximus and Scorponok, and
then a reissue also of the heads for Grand Maximus
and Black Zarek, which is Zarek and Grand. So
in total you get 10 headmasters and the reason
why This is so important and why I picked this
up. It was funny because I was at BACON 2010
and a very nice fellow who's part of the TFW
board, Foster Lager, he showed me these and I
literally dropped to my knees when I saw them
because prior to seeing that box set at BACON,
I did not know that this reissue set even existed.
Each one of these individual characters Kirk,
Loafer, Wadani, Shuffler, Lyonne, like each one
of those, easily the individual original headmaster
alone, just the head, commands $500 to $600 on
eBay. They were extremely rare back then. And
being a completist collector, I knew that one
day it would come around to that point where
I'd have to pick these characters up. and it
would cost me a lot of money. And while I don't
hesitate to spend four digits on something Rodimus
related or animation cells, for something like
this, which is just a headmaster head, it's very
hard to swallow. So when I saw this set with
these dead perfect to the point that you can't
even tell the difference, reissues of these original
super rare headmasters in a box set, and let
me tell you, if you see the pictures online,
this box set is gorgeous. It just blew my mind.
It was just like an answer to my prayers. And
I think the other thing that's also amazing about
this is it comes with Black Zarek, his headmaster.
Now Black Zarek, for a lot of people who don't
know, he suffers horribly, the original Black
Zarek from GPS, Gold Plastic Syndrome. And the
bootleggers were smart enough to make this reissue
with gold plastic that doesn't suffer from GPS.
So on top of that they made a reissue toy that
actually is better than the original which is
Something that's always funny when you when you
think about it, and I mean this set I mean holding
it if it was the real deal like if this set was
the real deal in your hands of those actual Toys
the set would easily be $6 ,000, but you could
pick this setup Off of eBay, or you could find
some guys on TFW selling it for Under 80 bucks
and I think it's a bloody steal because I mean
these are apps. These are a piece of TF history
They're they're based off of toys that I don't
expect anyone to shell the money out for yeah
You know, but they're so and they work with your
headmasters. They work with any they're like
there's a Lion headmaster that turns into a head.
There's an elephant, you know a tiger I mean
And then you get, like, you know, if you don't
have a head for your Scorponok or if you don't
have a head for your Fortress Maximus, it comes
with those, too, just for the heck of it. And
these are dead perfect reproductions, because
I own the originals and I'm comparing them side
by side. And these guys went out of their way.
And then on top of it, it comes in a super snazzy
box that, like, opens up with a display window
and, you know, little English writing talking
about the Headmaster Juniors, which are Nightbeats
and Hosehead and everything. Like... It's just
this perfect little set, and I love it to death.
I remember when I saw it at Bon Con 2010, it
was like one of those things when I left. I was
like, I got to find this. I got to get this.
It's the best alternative to owning the real
things. The guys who did it, and this is where
I put a big smile on my face. The guys who did
it, they're a group. that would like to remain
nameless, but they're called the Planet Master
Warriors. That's kind of their unofficial Chinese
bootleg name. They said that they're interested
in doing the dino cassettes. The dino cassettes,
and we're not talking Overkill and Slugfest.
During Headmasters, the Japanese had four exclusive
dino cassettes. that never came out, and those
two are retardedly rare and retardedly expensive.
And to get beautiful, perfect reissues of those
as an alternative is just the greatest thing
in the world. So, yeah, that's what I got. Are
you talking about Squawk Talk and Beastbox? No,
no, no, no. This is noise, and I have to show
you a picture. They were... four different dyno
cassettes, and each one of them combined to make
a different, they made decibel, and what was
the other one? I think it was decibel and blastback,
I'm trying to remember. Hold on. I know I have
to Google something right now, which is for shame
on me, but I just want to be sure for my own
knowledge, because I know noise was the name
of one of them, but it's just. Those cassettes,
man, those were rare, too. And just to get a
reissue of those would be great. But these Headmasters,
I mean, I'll find you some photos you could post
in the thread for the podcast. Yeah, I've got
the link. They're absolutely gorgeous. They really
are. And they're compatible. These are super
high quality bootlegs. These guys really went
out of the way to make sure. I mean, the only
thing that worries me is now the secondary market
for for the real ones of these are screwed. Because
now, if you find a loose one at any convention,
or if you find a loose one on eBay and someone
says it's the real thing, there's no real way
to tell. Unless you had it in hand and you could
really inspect it and maybe look for model casting,
which is like the leftover residue from sprues.
I mean, you'd really need a way to tell the difference.
But it's just these are gorgeous and I just wanted
to say, you know, what I got. Yeah, they do look
really awesome. How much of these run? The originals
back in the day, they used to sell them. Well,
with the exception of obviously, you know, Scorpion
Hawk and Fortress Maximus, all the others used
to be sold separately in its own little card
back like this little box that's as big as like
say like a Battle Beast box or something. They
used to sell them back then in Toys R Us Japan,
and they were not too difficult to get, but it's
just the secondary market today. You check on
eBay and type Headmasters, and then you type
Headmasters, and then you do most expensive auctions,
and then you see those guys, $699, $799, buy
it now. Like they're just, they're super, like
just for Kirk is $699. Just for Tresor is $599.
Where you go out and you buy this box set and
you get a Tresor that's dead on perfect 100 %
like the original that's on eBay for $599. And
it costs you the whole set for everyone and,
you know, Fortress Maximus, Grand Maximus, Zarek
and Zarek for 80 bucks. You know? It's just a
steal. And everyone who's like, every completist
and big name collector went nuts when this thing
came out. This was a big deal. And when they
do those dyno cassettes, that's gonna be the
complete deal. That'll be the whole... It's the
same thing. We got a reissue from Hasbro not
too long ago of a black jazz called Ricochet.
And the story with that one was Ricochet was
actually a homage or a reissue, if you will,
to extremely rare repaints of jazz back in the
80s called stepper. And so slowly, you know,
those extremely rare transformer toys are finally
getting reissued in one way or form, and it's
making it easier for collectors who don't. You
know, even someone like me who I fancy myself
a little crazy when it comes to expenditures,
but even me, I have my limits. I mean, to spend
$1 ,000 on a toy, it's got to be of monumental
importance. And then on top of that, to justify
it on size, I mean, to spend $1 ,000 on a complete
Fortress Maximus, I'll understand that, or a
Grand Maximus, or a Scorponok. But when you're
buying something as big as a Headmaster head
for $1 ,000, that's when you kind of have to
take a step back and really... really evaluate
where your head's at. And that's coming from
me, the completest. Yeah, I know. Everything's
a blank check. Well, that's just it. That thousand
dollars is better spent in a lot of different
areas. Even luck draws. And that's like me. I've
told people before, the only Chinese Vietnamese
auction I have ever Buy it now thing on eBay.
I have ever gotten because I couldn't wait Was
that wave 3 set of mugs for for shockwave and
jazz I at first I didn't really care for movie
optimist and bubble be and they sat in their
boxes like I don't know a good three months before
I said screw it and I opened them anyway, but
that's the only like before Market thing I've
ever bought and I just can't I can wait. I mean,
look how long I've been waiting for a Henkei
Rodimus, you know? And you know what? It's a
good thing you are waiting, because now the value
is going to go down. I think when... Protector
hits. Protector comes out. And then on top of
that, that challenge of Cybertron set comes out.
The value of, especially like, I remember I saw
a guy at TFCon, he bought a Classics Rodimus
for $80. And I looked at the guy, I'm like, buddy,
what are you doing? You know, like we know, we
know what's coming. I mean, if it was a Henkei
one, I'd understand, but the Classics one is
clearly the ugliest of the three, of the four
even, even the clear one, counting that one.
It's clearly the ugliest of the three. And if
you just would have waited a little bit for the
price of that $80 you just spent, you could have
got like one and a half of that Challenge of
Cybertron set. Or you buy the Challenge of Cybertron
set and have a little money left over to get
Protector. And considering how Protector is shaping
up to be just this amazing thing, I mean, you
really want to have every dime for it. I know
that, and I know we're kind of moving off your
cassette there, but... No, it's fine. I'm done
with it. So with Protector, will the challenge
set version, will that go well with it or not?
See, my speculation is how it works is always
based on color, and considering that, from how
it looks, the first two Rotomuses, the Classics
and the Henkei one, they're both molded... in
the same color of maroon. They're both the same
color maroons. There's no big difference there.
The only differences are a chrome spoiler, a
deco on the chest, and clear plastic in the windows
and the clear plastic areas. Now on the protector,
the spoiler, it really doesn't make a difference
one way or another what colors. It could be purple
and it's not going to change. protector or not.
The clear plastic for the toy, same thing. It's
not really going to make much of a difference
what color the clear plastic is. And the decos,
like the flame chest and everything, that's all
covered up when it's in the protector mode. But
this challenge for Cybertron one, that's the
one that concerns me because from the photos,
it looks like they use a lighter a lighter tint
of red, like I was saying before, very similar
to Rodimus Prime in the Marvel comic books. So,
assuming that they color the trailer after the
classic's maroon, you might have a stark contrast
in the super mode. Assuming. Again, we still
have yet to see a color version of it. So who
knows they might not do that. I don't know but
all I know is reading the fiction that they recently
released for it made me smile You know surprised
you didn't like and of course it was caught on
camera So you couldn't actually do this when
you attempted to steal it I'm surprised you didn't
attempt to kidnap one of the fans project guys
and just hold them at gunpoint and say paint
This the way I want it damn it Man it was it
was amazing seeing it in person and they were
showing it off and everything and for people
who are a little confused with Like for those
who saw the TFW post about Like the comic book
and everything that comes with like it's it's
the comic pack in that's usually the instructions
Yeah for protector like a lot of people are a
little confused. Like what is that buggy? That's
coming out of that's coming out of because you
have the you have the g3 trailer that's like
in this mausoleum and then the g3 trailer opens
up and then there's this like little buggy that
comes out and The story behind that is because
The g3 trailer came with this like souped up
roller that came inside it that had like, you
know, it was really cool looking, everything.
And I think the story is that they're trying
to play out in this is that Optimus dies or as
they call him the hero or whatever. And obviously
the trailer is buried with Optimus, but Roller's
still alive. And now you have this Roller that
comes out. Now he's sporting a Rodimus spoiler
and Rodimus colors. And I think he's going to
be key into the protector upgrade. Wow. Like
I think because it's like you have like the final
line I believe in the comic is you know It's
like let me join you protector and our continued
fight against all the dark forces So I think
roller and and what we saw at bot con what which
we have yet to see in images online They showed
us a little buggy that comes with protector Now
I don't remember that buggy very well, but you're
lying What you're lying? I'm not actually you
know what now that I think about it Maybe Vangelis
caught it on his video one sec here Preview let
me see something here So I remember he talked
about it yeah There it is you could see it under
it Okay, let me just send you the link right
now Sorry listeners, they're going to have to
bear with us for a second. Yes, we're having
Protoman difficulties. If you look under the
trailer, when it's in that setup mode there,
there's a buggy under it. Oh, cool. Yeah, I'll
have to look at it later because I can't play
videos while we're recording. There it is, they
actually included it. But yeah, I think that's
my speculation of how they're going to play out
the story and everything. it just it looks amazing
it's fans project without a doubt are the kings
of the third party guys um yeah so what are you
more excited for the protector armor or masterpiece
well masterpiece obviously but that that's because
masterpiece we've been picking away Like, I mean,
from what it's looking like now, it's going to
be Rodimus and Hot Rod. It's going to have an
opening matrix door. I mean, it's like, I love
Protector, but the stuff that Masterpiece is
going to do is... What we all wait for I mean
masterpiece is the quintessential peak of everything
transformers Whatever character you like you
want a masterpiece of them Whatever toy you like
you want a masterpiece of it like it's it's it's
the end -all and and be all when it comes to
transformers Where fans project is kind of they
exist to fill in the gaps of stuff that we want?
That that has real one ever do yeah that hasn't
been made yet or will never happen like triple
changers are always a scary thing for Hasbro.
I mean, they're still trying to figure out what
to do with Octane and Astro Train. Why? Because
they don't know what to do, because repaint wise.
Like classics octane and astro train that they
just they don't know what to do. They don't in
Japan They're like, okay, we could do the anime
color scheme and the normal color scheme But
octane is just like they're they're like, what
do we do with this? And that's the sad thing
too is that you know, you could take I mean I
remember someone pointed out it was actually
very true You could take Springer who turns into
a buggy a car and a helicopter, right? And if
you gave them a new head then you could sell
them a sandstorm also who also turned into a
helicopter and a buggy. That's the new practice
that Hasbro does now, where they put a new head
on a toy and maybe remold one thing or two things,
and they repaint it. Or in the case of poor animated
Ironhide, they just give them a new head and
don't change anything in the mold and just repaint
it day -glow orange. But yeah, but the point
is is that you know, like I mean if they did
do a Springer they could at least do that to
get one repaint potential out of it Yeah, even
then they only have that two repaints out of
it where Hasbro I think that now when they make
toys they kind of go Well, how many times could
we repaint it or how many times like what what's
using up the Rodimus? Look at the mileage they
got out of just that classic Rodimus mold. We
have the original the henkay the Shattered glass
one the wild ride gente gente one, which is the
the other black repaint from Japan Yeah, we have
the clear Cybertron version and now we have Challenge
we have this challenge one coming up. That's
six times already on a toy that's considered
really hard to get And you own 48 of them. Oh,
yeah Sad but true It's just it's just that you
know, like when Hasbro does molds they kind of
always consider, you know How do we make our
money back in sales by repainting and re -releasing
a toy? And triple changers are always this scary
area. Like I love broadside. I would love like
a triple changer broadside that's done like leader
class because he's a big transformer but it's
just it's like they're scared to do it you know
they're scared to to do that because it's like
okay we'll do broadside who turns into a plane
and an aircraft carrier and everything but then
what do you paint him into after and then some
people go well you could always do the name drop
and call him tidal wave and make him a decepticon
yeah but it's just hasbro that you know the new
thing now is that they constantly are looking
back they're constantly you know are They constantly
are seeing what could we homage? What could we
do? And that's like that's kind of why like they
even go with molds like like wheeljack and like
we're getting the jazz that's coming and Then
the reason why I think they waited this long
was because they're like, well, what can we do
with it? And then they realized well, we could
make wheeljack and jazz under the same umbrella
We can do we could do like I mean the tracks
one it could easily be another character too.
They could easily turn it into a myriad of different
sports cars that they could use. That's why they
love doing cars is because you could take tracks,
put a flame deco on the front, make them red
and just call them hot rod and people will believe
it. At the same time, you could take that same
tracks mold and give it smoke screens colors
and call it that and people would believe it.
Yeah, speaking of going back to the past and
Masterpieces, why haven't they done Soundwave
yet? This is what I actually said on TFW. Takara
is the ones that decides which characters are
chosen. And on top of that, what you do to...
Like I always tell people, here's how you figure
out what Masterpiece is next, okay? Look at...
All the small line like all the small small limited
run Transformer toy lines that come out that
focus on Predominant characters, so you have
the mega PVC line which had optimus Megatron
Starscream Rodimus star saber and like victory
Leo as a result Then you look at the revoltec
line optimus Megatron Starscream Rodimus. You
look at the Chrono Q line, Optimus Megatron Rodimus.
You look at the, you know, like I could go on
and on. It's just that there's a core group of
characters that are extremely important to the
Japanese that they kind of always want to do
first. And I think Grimlock was the shocker for
me personally. He was the outsider of the set
that I didn't expect a masterpiece to be done
of. I think it's more because they needed a filler
until 2010 for Rodimus. I don't know. But I don't
think Soundwave will come anytime soon because
in Japan he wasn't huge, huge popular like he
was here. The whole Soundwave love is lost in
Japan. It's the same thing Grimlock wasn't a
huge popular character in Japan. We know him
for the famous Greg Berger voice and it's iconic
and they were the guys who fought the Constructicons,
but in the Japanese, that was kind of lost in
there. I mean, it's the same thing. If not for
the Japanese, we wouldn't get as much Rodimus
love. The Japanese are the ones that love Rodimus.
It's not the Americans. I think that the only
reason that people are loving Rodimus now is
because, you know, like, I think... Even up to
the point when that first classics toy came out,
no one really cared about Rodimus. It's only
until afterwards that people go, oh, you know
what? That Rodimus toy is pretty cool. And then
we got an amazing animated toy. And then we got
an amazing, you know, masterpiece toy. And now
people are starting to really respect and like
Rodimus, where for the longest time, everyone
hated him. You know, he was like up there with
Wheelie. You know, oh, you killed Optimus Prime.
No, no, no, no, no, no. That was only a certain
camp. That wasn't... everybody but there was
there was a good group of people that that had
you know that hated the character and you know
even hasbro they were more focused on their core
group of eighty four eighty five characters and
focusing on a cup or a blur or okay that's fine
but but the question still remains regardless
of the way to car and chooses things if what
i'm trying to get out is that sound wave get
the popularity in america and in japan like he
does in america america he's huge in america
he's very popular he was iconic character voice
by frank welker everyone and anyone who even
knows transformers vaguely remembers the tape
guy but in japan they tried to to give this character
life and they tried to give them uh... notice
it's kind of like you want you know your masterpiece
Soundwave was that music label one. It's kind
of like... And not to mention, and that's another
thing too about Soundwave, is that me personally,
and while I don't want to knock your request,
but I think that masterpiece toys really should
be made of characters that had very shaky...
Initial toy releases like like when you have
a masterpiece toy It's got to be like something
that's trying to achieve show accuracy to the
extreme and making something that the original
toy never was like that's why I didn't like Grimlock
if you look at the original g1 Grimlock mm -hmm
he pretty much was show accurate to the extreme
and On top of that he was he wasn't a big departure
from how he looked on the show He wasn't you
know, a bad toy. And then you look at the Masterpiece
one, and not much has changed from the original
G1 toy to the Masterpiece. Sure, there's a lot
of gimmicks put into it and more articulation,
but the engineering at its core and its transformation
is more or less the same thing, where if you
look at something like Optimus, it takes his
entire G1 transformation and flips it on its
head. Well, it has to for Optimus. I mean, look
at G1 Optimus. He has no back. Well, that's just
it. But that's why what I'm trying to say is
that, you know, I think that masterpieces should
exist in order to make something better of something
that was not perfect back then. And by not perfect,
I mean, really, like I remember The Kobayashi,
the guy who designed a majority of the Masterpiece
toys, he wrote in the Generations guidebook that
when they were working on Megatron, when they
finally figured out what to do with that trigger,
like where to hide it. They had like a humongous
beer party after and they were celebrating because
they were it took them forever to engineer That
that that trigger that used to sit on well on
Megatron's cock into incidentally, you know in
the original g1 toy You know, so they really
wanted, you know, they want it and look out,
you know sure Hey, you know, the feet are thin,
but they did the best of what they could. Yeah
of the meat that they had to work with I understand
what you're saying that Soundwave isn't that
popular in Japan and all that stuff. What I'm
getting at though is you look at the original
G1 Soundwave toy and what really needs to be
improved... Cassettes? Well, aside from the cassettes,
what really needs to be improved from the original
Soundwave? Not much. That's just it. So to make
a masterpiece, I wouldn't say it's a waste, but
it's just that wouldn't you like to see... Well,
see, the thing is, even though I would suggest
it, it wouldn't happen, but wouldn't you rather
see a masterpiece jazz? For the Autobot side,
sure, but just looking at the masterpieces we
have already, Optimus Megatron, Starscream, That's
another thing, and I have to stress heavily with
the Japanese. The Japanese don't like villains.
They don't sell. And that's fine. To the point
that there were some transformer lines in Japan
that didn't have villains at all. Or if they
did, they had four to like 30. One of the reasons
why I want a masterpiece sound wave in the same
line that we've had all the other masterpieces,
the Optimus, the Megatron, the Starscream, the
future that is Rodimus, is because, number one,
the G1 toy is excellent. It is awesome. There
isn't that much to fault. And I understand that
they want to make toys better, like in the case
of Optimus Prime from G1, but... One of the reasons
why I mainly want a Masterpiece Soundwave is
so we can have slightly larger but still smaller
cassettes. I think that request also is partially
why the reason also I think we wouldn't get a
Soundwave is because then they'd have to do engineering
for cassettes. Think that and I don't think they
would just do straight -up blown up laser beak
rumble ravage I think they would actually try
to make a very amazing imagine think about this
way imagine sound wave the same size of Masterpiece
Optima you own an optimist a masterpiece optimist
prime correct or at least us some form of it
Yeah, imagine it that size now imagine how big
those cassettes would be so now imagine how much?
Articulation and amazing this ravage would be
at that size I know, and that's the point. That's
what I want. But that being said then, that involves
designing and engineering. So you're taking one
toy already that has to be designed and engineered,
Soundwave, and you know all masterpieces have
some kind of light up sounds and gimmicks. They
all do, with the exception of Starscream, but
there's a reason for that. And so then they're
going to create all these cassettes. And now
let's say they just do, you know... What you
would want is multiple cassettes, but I think
realistically they'd only do buzzsaw or laser
beaker or ravage. Like I think they'd only do
one because the budget would just be too much.
And then the most important thing of all, repaint
potential. This is something that again is always
going to follow us. We've had three or four different
versions of Soundwave. You've had Soundblaster,
you've had... What was the white one? Oh, the
shattered glass one. I could see a Soundblaster
being done, correct, but that's just it. A Soundblaster
could be done, but they're going to have to do
something with those cassettes. Now, again, you're
not going to get your ravage then. What they'll
do is they'll do Soundwave with Laserbeak and
Soundblaster with... buzz saw like a sound wave
with rumble and a buzz and a sound blast with
frenzy. But again, that means they have to engineer
two separate toys. Let's see that. All right.
Well, in the case of rumble and frenzy and eject
and rewind, those are interchangeable. Just the
paint apps would have to be changed. Those four.
So I mean, those shouldn't be an issue whatsoever.
The main issue is Really, not even Laserbeak
and Buzzsaw, but Ravage, Ratbat, Steeljaw, and
Ramhorn. Those four are the main issue. But,
I mean, still. Make them some sort of exclusive
or something. Like, instead of, say they made
the masterpiece Soundwave. Say they included
Buzzsaw and Laserbeak. They can then go and make
a four -pack of Rumble Frenzy. Ravage and rap
bad They never done I don't think the MP line
would ever make a sub line to compliment something
Like what they would do like it's the same thing
you had Optimus and then when they made the trailer
for it, they made a MPO for Optimus with trailer
I don't think they would do like something where
it would be just sound wave and then later they
do the other cassettes Now let me ask you, the
original version of Optimus that didn't come
with the trailer, is there any difference to
that between the original version and the one
that comes with the trailer? Nothing at all.
Okay. Again, in America it's a different story
from the smokestacks and battle damage, but in
Japan MP01 to MP04 it's the exact same thing,
it's just one comes with a trailer. Okay. and
it's a bigger price point and that also digs
into the Rodimus that's coming out. The Rodimus
is going to be the same price point and the same
box size as the MP04 because it's already been
confirmed that Rodimus is the same height as
MP01 Optimus because we've seen photos of the
masterpiece Rodimus next to Predaking and so
using Predaking as a basis of height We already
know how big the Rodimus is gonna be it's not
gonna be small like the Grimlock and the Starscream
or the Skywarp Thundercracker He's gonna be the
same height as the Megatrons or the convoys so
Yeah, it's gonna be a big box. It's gonna be
a big big box considering. It's coming with a
trailer also Yeah, and I'm just gonna say this
now, and I've said this on Twitter and stuff.
I'm over the fact that dyno bot one I like Dinobot
and I understand why he won as far as the fan
choice and it may be the only time we get Beast
Wars in the Hall of Fame or whatever. But still
it goes back to the fact that Soundwave got snubbed.
I don't care. And just like we've been talking
the last 20 -25 minutes about the possibility
and... in probability of a Masterpiece Soundwave,
I just think he's getting a raw deal. It makes
no damn sense to me whatsoever. Yes, I agree
with you that it would be hard for them to do
a Masterpiece Soundwave. Do I still want it?
Yeah, let's go. I mean, he is one of the major
characters from G1, regardless if the Japanese
like him or not. Masterpiece toys are marketed
as a collector's toy in Japan. In America, masterpiece
toys are still aimed towards children. When we
got that Ravage that came with Hound in Universe
2 .0, he wasn't called a cassette mode, he was
called a storage mode. I mean, they were trying
to even dance around the fact of tape cassettes.
Soundwave is a really complicated and hard sell.
That's kind of why we've had Lot of weird things
of like, you know, we've had Satellite. Yeah.
Yeah exactly trucks satellites His titanium was
the closest thing that we had to his original
form aside from the issues of the toy itself
I mean think about it like a lot of people when
you look at the classics line Sound waves reissue
is part of that classics line. It's almost like
they didn't want to do a reissue sound wave They
just counted that as part of the classics line
because it's hard to go back and do that. And,
you know, like, hey, he got his music label MP3
thing, and then he got the Rumble Frenzy headset,
and then recently Blaster came out with the device
label, you know, USB drives. I mean, there's
the effort. I mean, it's there, but even Blaster
too. Look, I love Blaster, but him too, he's
getting that same kind of... of direction where
they're trying to reinvent the character in different
ways. In Blaster, you went from a scion to a
repaint of Galaxy Force Soundwave as a jet. If
you're a Blaster fan, you really got shortcomings
of a lot of things. Especially that... Well,
well, I will probably go after the SDCC exclusive
blaster for the most part not right away But
eventually I will considering original blaster
kind of cost a little too much But I think he
got jipped on on the cassettes at SDCC this year
last year Soundwave got four tapes this year
blaster only got three and you can argue that
and I and I and I understand Eject and rewind
Rumble and Frenzy. They're the same cassette
except they're painted different colors. But
you could still have included Rewind with the
other three. Well, they are different molds,
Rewind and Eject compared to Rumble and Frenzy.
Oh, they are different molds? Oh, yes, they are.
Yeah, of course. 100%. How are they different?
They look the same to me. Oh, Mike. Allow me
to just... It's been a while since I've seen...
Different weapons, different mold completely.
Okay, yeah, I remember now, nevermind. But I'm
still, I'm just saying, I mean, Blaster kinda
got a, got the short end of the stick this year.
Oh yes, of course, I do agree because the fact
that they engineered one without the other is
redundant, uh, cause, uh, what was I gonna say,
like, Soundwave, he, when he got his San Diego
Comic Con, Set if you will mm -hmm They were
pretty much coming off of Like that classics
one that I was talking about previously, right?
So they kind of had something to work with already
And the molds were readily available when they
did blaster and they decided okay, we're gonna
put Steeljaw, we're going to put Ramhorn, and
we're going to put only one of them. We're going
to put the blue one. We're going to put Eject.
And I thought, well, since you already have the
mold, how is it such a big deal to not put Rewind
also? And the funny thing is, it's not even a
matter of cost, because Blaster, even though
he's larger than Soundwave, he's less parts,
he's less die -cast, he's less metal, he's less
weight, he's less materials. he's a lot more
simpler, and yet he had less figures. I don't
know, maybe there was a loss at Soundwave, maybe
they were worried that Blaster wouldn't sell
as well as Soundwave, which I could understand
completely, because Blaster is pales in comparison
to the popularity of Soundwave, even though I
love Blaster more. See, I love them both, and
one of the reasons why I like Blaster... See,
Soundwave, for the longest time... When I was
a kid Soundwave was my holy grail this is before
I get into Rodimus This was at the time Soundwave
was my holy grail and one of my best friends
had one and he wouldn't even let me play with
the damn thing He wouldn't even let me touch
it and Blaster was the first one. I actually
had I had got blaster. I got All four cassettes
with the gold weapons, not the silver ones, the
gold weapons. Were the silver ones the originals
or the gold? The gold ones actually were the
variants. Oh, okay. I see. I thought the gold
ones were the originals. All the original Blaster
cassettes and Ratbat all got gold variant weapons.
Okay. All right. Well, I had the ones with the
gold weapons and I had all four of the cassettes.
I had Blaster himself. I love the hell out of
that toy, and I don't understand why people don't
like him. You know what? I think maybe the people
who don't like him, it's more of a scale issue.
He actually, Blaster was my first ever Transformer
toy as a kid, so that's why I have a special
place in my heart for him. But I think it's a
great toy. The only negative I could say is that
the Japanese version from Microman is better,
because it was an actual working radio. Aside
from that, I love the Blaster toy. I think he's
great. I think the cassettes he come with are
awesome. I love Steeljaw. I love Eject and Rewind.
you know, the cassettes that you could get afterwards
for Blaster, which is the kiss play ones, which
are Glit, Rosantor, and Rosanna later on, if
you got the reissue Blaster, which came with
Flip Size, which was the other pink female cassette.
I mean, there's a myriad of many different characters
that you could pick up related to Blaster. uh...
and it is it's a little shame what's any of comic
con did to him and how he was short comes but
i think it was more was a worry of sales material
against profit who knows it's a long story you
know and i guess on that note i think we're gonna
close this we've been doing this for slightly
over an hour uh... yeah uh... let's see so uh...
do you guys have any does are you guys putting
any tfcon videos up on the youtube channel at
all or are we just so We recently put up the
last two videos of Dan Gilbison's interview,
and let me tell you something. The Dan Gilbison
interview is rated R because he says some hilarious
stuff on there that you would never expect from
the voice of Bumblebee. So anyone who wants to
see Dan Gilbison, the voice of G1 Bumblebee,
raw, uncut, swearing in Bumblebee's voice...
watch it. It's hilarious. And this was in front
of a crowd of 150 people. Imagine like he knew
what he was doing. And I think after he did,
he probably regretted it. But and then also,
we're going to start putting up some newer videos.
I believe some of the older panels from last
year, not this year, because this year's panels,
a lot of people put them up already. But some
of the last year panels i think i have to ask
evan he's the guys in charge of of our dvds and
of our video production but those of the two
new one now they were added two days ago thank
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two one We hope you enjoyed this episode of Toycast
and wish you'll join us next time. Be sure to
visit BigBadToyStore .com for all your Transformers
and other toy -related needs and more. For now,
I am TFG1 Mike with the Goddamn Proto Man. Thank
you for listening. Until next time.
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