Power Core Combiners Discussion

Cliffjumper, commence countdown! Five, four,

three, two... Hello and welcome to the 70th episode

of Toycast. Yes, that's right. The 70th episode

I am your host TFJU and Mike and joining me for

the first time ever is a combination of Pecan

Court Michael and Brian Kilby from Radio Free

Cybertron. Hey guys, how's it going? Yo I took

your catchphrase, sorry. I thought I heard Richard

Simmons on the line there. What was that? That's

kind of scary, actually. Hello. Hey, how's it

going? It's going. I think it's... No, Brian,

you were... You were on episode 50 for a little

bit. You weren't on the whole thing. Okay, so

it's been about 20 or so episodes See how I was

thinking the last episode you were on was the

first episode you were on which is episode 30

that was like 50 episodes ago, but yeah Yeah,

something like that. So What are you been up

to Brian? Working about 90 hours a week and podcasting

it's awesome and then trying to spend some time

with my wife. It's fantastic I like how that

goes work podcasting then the wife Yeah. Why

would you want to do that, man? Yeah, I hope

she didn't hear that. I don't think your wife

listens to this show, so that's good. Yeah. I

need a list now of all the wives who listen to

this show, just to be sure. Yeah, hopefully they

don't like wives clubs who listen to the podcast

just to spy on their husbands. Well, I know Steve's

wife doesn't listen to any of the podcasts he

tries to do, so we're safe there. I think if

she did, she wouldn't be scheduling him to go

out during podcast time. What? It's Thursday

night? Oh, I guess it is. Yeah, we'll table that

discussion for another time. You just saw the

Expendables, Brian, as of this recording. What

did you think? I think the reviews sort of missed

the point. The reviews are sort of... poor to

mediocre. They say that they expected more with

all of these action heroes and want to be action

heroes on screen. Well, I mean, the movie is

a symphony of violence. It's which is pretty

much a testament to early to mid 80s action films.

Action films really didn't get smart. Well, other

than, say, like Rambo didn't really get smart

until like the late 80s, mid to late 80s. But

like the coming of Die Hard. So it really does

sort of fill that gap from like 82 to 85 of just

mindlessly terrible violent films. But it did

it with a smile, so I kind of liked it. Awesome.

But you know, it's the third basic movie this

year we've had, which you know, The Expendables,

The Losers, and The A -Team, because they've

all been trying to vie for that team movie. niche

and They're all decent in their way I I can't

it's hard I think I like the losers the best

and going into the film season I really expected

the losers to be my least favorite of the three

so yeah Michael you've been up to since the last

time I don't know when the hell I think the last

time you were on this show was episode 62 yeah

the The BotCon 2010 toy stuff. Yeah, so what

are you been up to? Today, mostly yard work.

We had let the yard work go for about a month.

Me too. We had other stuff to do. We've been

busy. I usually only get a chance to do it on

the weekends. Again, our weekends have been packed.

Tomorrow, we've got our boys' birthday party.

They're parties on the same day. They're not

born on the same day, but their birthdays are

close enough together where we just put the party

in the middle. And, you know, the front yard

is all overgrown and nasty, and bushes are all

untamed, and the backyard just looks like a jungle.

And, you know, it's just going to be too hot

to have the party outside tomorrow, but it's

most likely going to rain. I still had to go

outside and make sure that the yard was presentable

when people drove up. So lots of mowing and edging

and trimming of bushes and just basically putting

myself there out underneath the sun where I don't

like to be. Yes, if it's not a dark, damp room

with giant oak shelves filled with robots, then

it's no place to be, really. I don't know about

damp, but everything else fits, yeah. It's a

cave. It's just a cave. It's my man cave. This

is where the men go to unwind. Yes. I have one

of those. It's where I go to unwind and where

my cats go to take a dump. God. Ow. I don't know

how the heck you podcasted for six hours for

SDCC and then that room. Holy crap. Yeah, uh,

I have a high tolerance for cat shit, so. That

sounds so wrong. See, I've got three cats, but

if they started shitting in my room, they'd have

to go, you know, I love Fluffy, everyone loves

Fluffy, but if Fluffy shits in my room, we can

get a new Fluffy. Oh, man. Before we get into

the discussion topic, I wanted to bring up something.

Michael, you posted a link on Twitter and it's

in the Skype chat. I think you should be able

to see it, Brian, up there. Mickey D's is the

devil. This was an article online from the Campaign

for a Commercial -Free Childhood. I originally

thought this was like a joke because it's...

It starts off just basically saying how horrible

the Marvel -based Happy Meal toys are. It actually

says, the fast food giant's latest giveaway for

preschool boys features eight Marvel comic action

figures. One, the human torch, is a man engulfed

in flames. Another, the thing, menacingly roars

its clobbering time at the press of a button.

I'm thinking this is a valid description. Yeah,

but it gets worse. It's like During the current

promotion boys get violent action figures with

their burger and fries while girls are offered

cutesy animals that bizarrely come with handbags

Where is the funny part? Well, no, it's just

you know, if clobbering time is McDonald's idea

of family fun it's time to steer clear of the

golden arches and You know, I'm kind of thinking

It's you know, Fantastic Four, you know, it clearly

it's it's a man on fire but Still it's the Fantastic

Four For preschool boys a so -called Happy Meal

at McDonald's features the horrifying spectacle

of a man on fire and a menacing figure that explicitly

spurs them to violence Like it's clover in time

Did these people, like, not have childhoods?

I don't get this. Apparently not. Yeah, it's

crazy. And first of all, and I'm sorry to interrupt

you, Michael, and you, Brian, as well, but the

problem I have with this, and one of my other

followers on Twitter is Nightmax's mom. She pointed

this out. The preschooler or toddler toys, as

McDonald's calls them, they're never advertised.

These are the regular, like, six, seven, eight

-year -old regular happy meal toys. These aren't

the little kiddie toys that the toddlers get

and preschoolers get. They're not. These are

what every other child would get in a regular

happy meal because you actually have to request

a toddler toy or else they'll give you one of

these things. These are not the worst happy meal

toys ever. I've seen worse happy meal toys. I

think the problem there is that they are saying

that The Happy Meal toys are being marketed to

children with these toys, but they're kind of

likening it to using cartoon characters to market

cigarettes to little kids. And what's wrong with

that? uh... uh... it's johnny bag of glass so

we have this bag is full of crushed glass the

child and porcelain floor rolls in it it's happy

fun for everybody but but again yeah but but

again uh... my max's mom pointed out to us that

you know it's not the kids that going by this

it's the parents that say all let's go to mcdonald's

reage a happy meal and they say which you know

if you had since they have a son and daughter

you know One gets the boy toy one gets the girl

toy and half the time if the girls get the boy

toy They put purses on it anyways, so it's not

like it's you know But it's the parents making

the choice. It's not the children So it's I don't

see how this whoever this person is that wrote

up this little blog their article thing or whatever

I don't see how they can say it's kids choice

because they're not the one but they're not the

one paying money for it I mean, unless you're,

you know, over in China and your three -year

-old is earning slave labor at a penny a day

or a penny an hour. I mean, you know, seriously.

I mean, this isn't like kids are, you know, three,

four -year -old kids are going to McDonald's

saying, I want that one with the big fiery guy

that's on fire. And is that an actual picture

of the toy? Because I seriously doubt that the

toy itself for Human Torch has the flames around

the red piece. I think it does, yeah. Does it

really? I have it. Seriously? That just happened

to be the one that I got. Wow, this is perfect

timing for this little discussion, holy crap.

Yeah, I find that questionable. Or it's Iron

Man, I'm trying to remember. It was red and it

was in the bottom of the bag when I got it. Yeah,

actually there's a blog post that I wrote. Couple

years back when the well it might have been a

year now, but I forget exactly but When the Transformers

animated toys came to McDonald's yeah, I basically

mentioned it to my wife that oh hey Why don't

we stop by McDonald's sometime and get a happy

meal and she's like okay, so At the time, we

were out shopping and she said, hey, why don't

we run over to the McDonald's that's, you know,

it's like built into the Walmart or something.

And I'm thinking, you know, she's pregnant, she's

hungry, I'm not going to tell her no. So we walk

over there and she said, well, I'm going to have

a happy meal. Aiden's gonna have a Happy Meal

and what do you want? And I'm like, well, I guess

I'll have a Big Mac. And she's like, no, you're

having a Happy Meal. What kind of Happy Meal

do you want? And I'm thinking, hell, I don't

know, cheeseburger. Sure, why not? And then it

occurs to me, she's buying a whole bunch of Happy

Meals in order to get the toys. Which was awesome

because it's like best wife ever. And she's just

the worst of enablers, right? Because I have

this horrible habit. Yeah, but it turned out

that that particular McDonald's had all of them.

And we bought six Happy Meal toys. Nice. Yeah,

and I ate like four hamburgers that day. Equally

awesome. That's like 1200 calories in fun. So

that's awesome. Yeah, and I got all the toys.

So that was sweet. I mean, it's better than like

when I think Beast Machines was at Burger King.

Mm -hmm, and I went I went to all the different

Burger Kings like twice a week looking for the

Beast Machines toys until I got them all It's

crazy. It's a sickness, honestly Yeah, yes, it

is. Um We have any other general chat stuff we

want to get out of the way before we get into

today's discussion topic Not really. I'm good.

I think we should we should break right here

and head to McDonald's and get some happy meals

It's too hot outside, dammit. It is. Oh, it's

raining here too. Yeah, it's raining right there.

I had a brainstorm for this because I knew you

guys were going to be on this episode and I knew

that... When we get to discussion, it's pretty

much you guys gonna go back and forth and I'll

interject here and there, but I'm not really

gonna be a part of the discussion, but I had

a brainstorm about 45 minutes ago for the title

of this episode, and I already told Michael and

he kinda snickered at it, so I'll go ahead and

say on the air, let our power cores combine.

It sounds a little like Michael and I are going

to get into some sort of... I don't know sort

of arrangement that I don't I don't think either

of us would approve of so About the toy it's

about the damn toy Mary No, no, no see See, it's

that type of it's that type of thinking that

we have over on the beast unleashed and we don't

want that here oh god see i wasn't even thinking

that i was thinking of finding a way to incorporate

the captain planet logo with transform or captain

planet saying with transformers i'm sorry you

know i you know some people think i'm smart but

i'm really like this really shallow thinker i

don't really think beyond the obvious so how

does captain planet tie in again because they

always said for him to for him to come out let

our powers combine So I add in let our power

cores combine I see now. Yeah, I never watched

Captain Planet It's bad when you have to explain

the joke to the co -hosts people dude Captain

Planet I know but still When Captain Planet was

coming on I was like 12 years old and my favorite

show was the McLaughlin group So I really kind

of missed most of that oh boy and on that note

let's get into the discussion topic power cores

combined power core combiners where do you guys

want to start with this michael you want to go

first uh... sure and am i going to cover uh...

particular guy or am i going to cover the combiner

you'll do the particular guy like smolder when

we get to the display case part but i mean just

paracore combiners overall as far as yeah in

general as far as what you guys think I do like

them. I think they're the best thing in years.

Well, seeing as though all we've had in years

is movie toys. And animated. And we've had animated

in the last two or three years as well. You know,

I really like the animated toys. Honestly, if

all I had to choose from was movie and the occasional

universe toy. or classics, let's say, then yeah,

animated was clearly my favorite. But animated

didn't do combiners, and I'm a combiner junkie.

I mean, if it combines, I'll get it. I haven't

got all the stupid energon toys just because

they would fold in half and you could put the

deluxe Autobots together in one taller guy. Power

linking was awesome. Exactly, you know and that

I mean as bad as that line was I still wanted

to combine them just because I could And when

I first started, you know going back to collect

that's the first thing I started with was all

of the combiners Yeah, I just really like that

concept and the fact that you know, you can get

the whole set for 20 bucks I don't want to say,

oh, that's the icing on the cake. But you know,

yeah, it kind of is. Yeah, I love that. And what

I really love is the fact that they all have

mini -con ports. And this is a concept that I'm

glad they didn't let die. I was afraid that after

Armada, they kind of let that dwindle a bit.

with with energon they had a few minicons but

not really and by the time you get the cybertron

same thing few minicons but not really and i

thought well that that idea is going to die on

the vine but these guys are just chock full of

minicon ports and uh i i want to say that uh

it i would almost support like a new minicon

line to go along with these i would support a

new minicon line for anything I love minicons.

Yeah, but I mean wouldn't it be cool if let's

say you've got your your aerial bot team and

each limb can support a minicon if you had a

let's say a color coordinated minicon team. So

you've got like a yellow one for the helicopter

and a white one for the plane and a blue one

for the helicopter and you know they all kind

of fit where they're supposed to go but it would

It would almost be like his arms are bigger,

especially if you could get them so they combine

in such a way where it would bulk up the shoulders

or the arms to make them look like it's not only

boosting their power levels, but also would boost

them physically. My problem is I can't get them

to stand up once I put minicons on them. You

know I can get them to stand regularly, but you

stick many kinds on their shoulders, and they're

falling They're gonna. They're gonna tip right

over I I haven't tried, but I can see that I

It's like they're just perched there precariously,

and it just seems like they wouldn't balance

out too well Depending on maybe some of the smaller

mini cons might work, but some of the bulkier

mini cons You know, they look funny that way

because the minicons are almost as big as the

limbs themselves. I mean, when they're in vehicle

mode, I want to say that the vehicle modes are

supposed to be the size of legends, but they're

just a hair bigger than the minicons. I put out

a couple photos on Twitter, I want to say last

week, and one of them was the combaticon. Yeah,

the combaticon limbs in robot or not robot in

a vehicle mode with minicons on top and the second

one was the aerial bot limbs with minicons on

top of them and Yes, I was trying to be snarky,

but I think I commented with You know, yo dog.

I heard you like minicons. So we put minicons

on your minicons Yes, that's what the post was.

Yeah, and you know, they look cool that way But,

I mean, literally, it's a helicopter with a helicopter

on top of it. I just have to interject here really

quick before you guys go any further. You guys

are talking about how awesome minicons are. I

go... I stop at Soundwave and Blaster's tapes.

That's about the closest I come to caseticons

or minicons or whatever. And I would love to

see a Blaster versus Soundwave caseticon fight.

Whether it be in comic form whether it be in

an animated series whether it be what some masters?

Huh watch headmasters. Yeah Well the barely I

mean they had I mean it was like a five second

scene when when when rumbling all them Descended

into the little top, you know all that but I

mean it wasn't even that long of a scene. I'm

saying like like a three -part episode or something,

just dedicated to those two teams. The best fight

ever in Transformers is Soundwave versus Blaster

from like episode four of Headmasters. They pull

out all these crazy wrestling moves and it ends

and they both die. It's like the best thing ever.

I was gonna say, is that the one where they die?

Yeah. It's too bad they couldn't have actually

done that in G1 instead of some stupid fan dub.

They died in the actual original animation. I

mean, the original Japanese. Soundwave blows

up and Blaster turns gray and passes away. Sweet.

Yeah, that was epic. So I guess all Decepticons

blow up and all Autobots turn gray? It's entirely

possible. I really haven't thought about it,

but... Yeah, they bring them back anyway. Yeah.

Alright, so back to the power core things. Power

core combiners. I love power core combiners.

Michael's right. I mean, they're cheap. They

combine, and they have many cons. I mean, it's

like, how can you not love these things? To top

it off, the toys, they're not all awesome. Like,

Skyburst is, he's pretty good, but he's kind

of like a gigantic G2 Cyberjet. Bomb Shock is

pretty darn awesome. I don't have Double Clutch

or Mud Slinger yet, but Double Clutch looks to

be pretty great. Mud Slinger, you know, it's

Constructicons. They're called Destructicons,

but you know, it's like G1 -tastic. The Rallybots

look great. I really can't wait for a Stunacon

repaint set. Mean it's it's it's the most interesting

thing. They've done with transformers a long

time I absolutely love the toys and transformers

animated, but it's because almost entirely due

to their visual aesthetic Where the play value

and I am yes play value. I do I buy toys because

they're fun The play value of power core combiners

is as It's as strong as we've had since the since

transformers are Mata And the stuff like this

is why I collect Transformers and why I love

being a Transformers fan because they're just

great. It's that breath of fresh air that I've

been waiting years for because we've had movie

shit. And while I really loved Universe 2 .0

and classics, the toys were nice and they were

okay, but they didn't do anything new. These

do something new. Right. I like the gimmick.

And just to drill down a little bit, What do

you think of the minicons? I mean, I personally,

I feel like they've kind of gotten minicons right,

in a sense, because in Armada, you end up with

minicons that would have a secondary weapon mode.

Or like a secondary weapon mode. Something approaching

one. Leader 1 was basically, you know, Leader

1 strapped on Megatron, but you could pretend

that he's a gun, or you could just pretend that

he's Leader 1 strapped on Megatron. Yeah, something

like that. But I mean, like with these guys,

they have, you know, a robot mode, the passable

robot mode, let's say. They've got a weapon mode,

which is like a personal melee weapon. or in

some cases a gun or something, but it's a weapon

that the robot can use. They have an armor mode,

questionable, which is an armor that the robot

can use, and then they have a weapon mode for

the vehicle to use. You've only got so much plastic

to work with here, so it can only pull off each

one. reasonably while passively, let's say. They

seem to pull, they seem to design it with each

one with one of those modes in mind. One may

be a great robot, one may be a great melee weapon,

and one may be a great vehicle weapon or armor.

Right. Well, yeah, I mean, but the fact that

they can do all four is pretty impressive. The

only downside is that unlike any other minicon,

they don't have a vehicle mode. Yeah, that's

true. Actually, I've been so blinded by the fact

that their weapons that I really haven't even

thought of that that is totally true Well, no,

I dig it and I think that the the downside of

the The five facts is that they don't come with

many cons I like the individual commanders having

many cons and especially with like Huffer, you

know, I've got him with his mini -con on his

chest, and the searchlight has his mini -con

on his chest. I really like the translucent plastic

in armor mode. And here I am forgetting his name,

all of a sudden, Smoulder. Smoulder has Chopster

on his chest, which is very, very cool. But when

you get to the five packs, You know, number one,

they don't come with a mini -con, and number

two, the way that they're set up, they don't

have mini -con ports on their chest. So, like,

Bombshock has a mini -con port on the back of

his head and on his guns in the back, which means

you could attach a guy to his back where you

couldn't see him, and the guns would have to

face straight up. And with Skyburst, he's got

a mini -con port on his back. But again if you

put you know like let's say Who's the who's the

other one Caliburst is the one that looks cool

in our remote you put Caliburst on bomb shocks

back You're not gonna see him. It's not gonna

do you much good So, I mean like I said that

I don't think the five packs were made with many

cons in mind and yet by the time you get to season

3 They're gonna repaint skyburst and bomb shock

and get and give them somebody else's many cons

Yeah, I mean it's it Power core combiner is definitely

a first effort. It's it's they don't really have

the magic down yet It's a great concept, but

we'll probably see a better execution If this

is actually a new play pattern, if this is something

they decide to stick with for a few years, I

would expect them to leverage many comports and

such more effectively later on. But everything

you're saying makes sense. But, you know, again,

I really like the way that they combine. In fact,

I don't even have the limbs on their respective

commanders. I took the aerial bots off of Skyburst

and put them onto Searchlight. I think he looks

cool. Well, number one, he can wear a minicon

on his chest. And two, I like the helicopter

blades. He's got helicopter blades in his armpits.

Which is I find that cool. I don't know I think

older in half Air out the pits with the with

the fan blades And my combaticons are sitting

on smolder and you know, if you haven't done

that yet do it because it looks badass, you know

I'm a little bit OCD and I know I shouldn't be

because I talk about how fun these toys are then

I play with them or display them just like Hasbro

sent them to me in the package by sent to me

I mean you know put them in the package in the

store so it's like I don't really want to mix

them because it's kind of like getting uh it's

kind of like getting gravy in my Kool -Aid or

in my ice cream it's just like oh I don't know

if I want to do that but uh You know, maybe if

I could take some sort of antidepressant or something

and just sort of make my way into that realm

and actually do that. That sounds even better.

You know, that's a lot of the fun, to be honest.

I mean, because you've got five commanders, but

only two sets of limbs. At least in wave one,

right? So it makes sense that you would give

the other commanders limbs to play with. And

I passed him around a little bit. I gave limbs

to Huffer You know, I didn't have done that.

Oh, I see. I didn't think he looked all that

good I mean cuz like Huffer is literally He fold

his arms up and give him a new head. It's still

Huffer. He's got the same chest and everything

But well, I mean smolder doesn't look like smolder

Because in in combiner mode you take his arms

and fold them up into like these great big huge

shoulders these huge shoulder pads You know and

especially once you stick the the mini -con in

armor mode on his chest You know he's he looks

like a different animal completely And you know

kind of like with the bomb shock bomb shock in

combiner mode doesn't look anything like bomb

shock in just regular robot mode. They look like

they could be two separate robots. And to a certain

extent, Skyburst does the same thing, but only

because everything on his back swivels around

and sits on his sides. And to a certain extent,

you get that effect. But no, to my opinion, Huffer

and Searchlight 2, for the most part, pretty

much just look like They're they're robot modes

except You know with many kinds hanging off them.

Yeah, that is very true And probably that's the

reason that they were packed solo is that's how

that that's how that designers originally intended

them to be I think later on I Don't know. I don't

know at BotCon. Do you remember seeing any wave

3 picks where they start packaging like smolder?

Isn't Smolder going to be put in a protect -a

-bot set or something, or that's the rumor? That's

the rumor, yeah. I'm not sure exactly who they're

going to package him with, but yeah, the rumor

is that he's going to end up as an Autobot repaint.

The searchlight is going to end up as a repaint

in gray and red with gold propellers. I think

that looks sharp. but you know that the other

two are going to end up either in a five pack

or repainted too. What I don't understand is

if Hasbro is making all you know making this

new line of power core combiners and all this

stuff and whatever else I understand why why

why is by wave three that they're already making

repaints of the same characters why not make

new characters? Well that's the beauty of it

is that they are repainting the commanders from

the five packs but you're not getting anything

new it's just a repaint of a toy you already

have are you asking are you asking why they're

not calling these new characters or why aren't

they making new toys I'm asking why yeah but

it's a combination of both why aren't they gonna

make new toys for wave 3 that are new characters

that can go along with smolder and whoever else

well they are they are doing both they're creating

new toys because I mean they've got like three

or four different molds that are coming out on

top of the repaints and then the the repaints

are It's not a new bomb shock with new colors.

It's it's a new character. They're gonna call

him steel shot and The aerial bot repaint they're

gonna name him dark scream Okay again, like I

said, I'm so not interested in this crap That's

the cool thing. There's so much stuff out there.

You don't have to be I mean if you want to buy

Movie stuff there's movie stuff gonna buy generations.

There's generations I think all three of us can

agree and all three of us don't really like it

But the movie line else for me outside of ravage

the movie line. I want nothing to do with that

crap either Well, I mean it depends on what you

call the movie line. I mean There are toys that

have been labeled Revenge of the Fallen that

have been, you know, fantastic, like Bludgeon.

I mean, the design aesthetic is not movie at

all, but it was released that way. It's a great

toy. I mean, just because it's movie -inspired

or movie -packaging, you know, doesn't mean that

it's movie, necessarily. No, I mean specific

movie -line toys, like Skids and Mudflap, RC,

Optimus... Master P, I mean, well, I mean, later

class Optimus is great. He's a great piece. I

don't know if I'm going to say a great toy. One

of my favorite toys recently is actually Legends

Class Wheelie. It's like the closest thing to

a minibot that we're going to get in the movie

line, and he's fantastic. I love that little

thing. The remote control car? Yes. Oh my god,

you're kidding. No, I love that toy. Not the

Scout, but the Legendary. Yeah, the little tiny

one. I need one to hump somebody's leg. I freaking

hate the character from the movie. I think it's

stupid. The toy itself, though. The toy itself

is great. I can separate the two. Drift is the

worst character of anything ever, but his toy

is brilliant. It's one of the best toys. I can

remember in years. It is a fun toy. Yeah. I don't

know. I mean I bought some of the movie line

like I've got Revenge of the Thaw and Thrust

here on my desk because hey, it's a thrust. I

mean, you know, he's thrust. Come on. Pretty

much anything that's like a G1 homage, you know,

I'll pick that up. You know things like that,

but for the most part I shy away from the movie

line I'm just not a big fan of the Bayformers

and You know like you mentioned there's a lot

of the toys here that Look more like You know

g1 toys rather than the stuff you'd find in the

movie You know or even homages to other lines

like the lockdown yes lockdowns great. I love

you. Yeah yeah I really like that too and a lot

of the scout class figures look a lot more like

you know I would say you know Cybertron toys

than anything else so I picked some of those

up okay fine I picked them all up talk about

OCD I know that's my personal vice you know I

just picked up Was it crankshaft and and hubcap

the other day too, and they look pretty good,

too I like them and you know for the most part

with except for that ugly face You know they

could pass for classics toys Yeah But again,

you know to digress if you are not interested

whatsoever in movie toys right about now You

either have a choice between You know the four

generations toys that have come out so far and

the dozen or so that are gonna come out for the

rest of the year, or Powercore combiners. And

for people who don't like the movie or don't

like Powercore combiners, well, your wallet thanks

you, because you have a very limited selection

of what you can buy over the next year. But no,

I dig the Powercore combiners, and I think, I

mean, just looking over the pictures here, like

Icepick. Oh, he's awesome. I mean, that's that's

terribly cool. And, you know, some of these are

just really neat. And the repaints, I'll take

it or leave it. But when they start coming out

with really inspired stuff like smolder repainted

this hotspot, you know, with protect about limbs,

you know, you know, I'm going to go buy that.

Yeah, I'm really surprised more people don't.

In fact, I was listening to I've been trying

to catch up to with all of my radio free Cybertron

episodes lately and on a recent one, I think

you had mentioned that I forget who you're talking

with but they were at the SDCC and they said

that at the Hasbro Panel at the San Diego Comic

Con People didn't react well to the power core

combiners. Yeah, Jack was there from Tformers

and he said people were walking away. And I mean,

power core combiners, they're geared toward two

people. They're geared toward Transformers diehards

and kids. I was, I mean, at BotCon, how many

BotCons have you been to? Probably about eight.

Okay, so you've seen the change over the years

where it was mostly hardcore nerds and as probably

the last three or four years, it's like a lot

of average normal people. Well, since the movies

came out, yeah, definitely. Even before the movies.

2005, I remember like, wow, there are a lot of

normal looking people here that I would have

never expected to see at BotCon. Those people

are... are gearing or trending toward the Transformers

nerd, but the people at SDCC, they could care

less. They want to see G1 or they want to see

movie stuff. And if it's not G1 themed or movie

themed, they don't care. And I mean, I think,

I think Powercore combiners will be great amongst

kids and amongst this, you know, 20th percentile

of Transformers fans who really, who are really

into it. Right. Well, I think to a certain extent,

you know, Hasbro dropped the ball here. by not

renaming more of these guys as G1 counterparts.

Like they threw Huffer in there, which was cool

because he looks, you know, in vehicle mode,

he looks a lot like, I want to say that BotCon

Huffer. You know, so, you know, he could tie

that in there. I mean, as far as like Bombshot

goes, could they have named, Bombshock onslaught

and gotten away with it. Absolutely. Yeah, definitely

onslaught and the combaticons the same thing

with your you know, your hot shot or hot spot

I should say repaint of smolder Will they call

him hot spot? Probably not but he's blue and

he's a rescue truck and he's got protective bots

on his arms and legs You know, you know, you'll

be able to add put two and two together. Yeah,

oftentimes they lose the name Actually, I vaguely

think that even though they used it recently,

they might have lost Onslaught. I read somewhere

that they may have actually lost the Onslaught

name. That sucks. I'm looking over at the titanium

repaint of Robots in Disguise Prime, and he was

renamed as Hot Zone. Hot Zone, yeah. Yes, I don't

think they have Hot Spot anymore. I know back

in 0203, for OTFCC, they wanted to repaint Red

Prime in the hot spot, and that just looked fantastic,

but it never got off the ground. Oh, that died

with the Hartmans. Yeah. I should say the Hartman

BotCon. The 3H BotCon, I should say. Then Adley,

you know, that was supposed to come out the same

year. Uh, as their, uh, Armada Megatron repaint,

uh, into a Megazerac. Megazerac, yeah, that was

OTSCC. That was actually post -Hartman's. Oh,

was it? Yeah, that was, that was OTSCC 04. I

thought, no, I thought that was the last Hartman.

Uh, no, cause actually, they didn't, uh, they

didn't release that until after. I mean, they

were supposed to. have sold that at that bot

con but it came out after that was that was that's

when Glenn Hallett was running it and there are

just a lot of financial issues and things with

the shipments I remember in at the end of OTCC03

which is the first official convention I was

actually able to make to the whole thing instead

of just a day of it. They showed it in the organizers

panel and I was just so stoked to get it and

I wasn't able to go to 04 but I ended up getting

it around the same time the actual convention

goers got it you know like a couple weeks after

the show. Right I didn't get it until much later

I just because I didn't feel like waiting for

it and so if I can't get it here You know, I'm

not going to bother. I ended up picking one up

years later. That's one of my favorite molds

ever. So, yeah, I had to have it. Again, I just

like that you could cover it in minicons. Yes,

fantastic. Yeah, as much grief as people give

Armada Optimus, the fact that he... You know,

his rear end, if it didn't catch your house on

fire, could become a base for all your minicons.

I thought that was just the coolest thing ever.

Yeah, he's not my favorite toy, but I love the

Deluxe toy. I think it's a better toy. But yeah,

how minicon capable the... Oh gosh, what was

that size class? Supreme, or was it Supreme?

Whatever it was called back then. That was cool.

Well, no, Unicron was supreme, I guess, but whatever

size class Optimus was. Oh, no, he wasn't supreme.

He was whatever passed for a leader class back

then. And I don't know what that was called at

the time. I forgot. Yeah. But yeah, no, Unicron,

oh, you could just coat him in minicons. Am I

the only one that wants the, I really, really

want the G1? colored unicorn that's coming out

in Japan. I can't justify it, but I want it so

badly. I would love one, but for like 200 bucks,

I don't think so. Yeah. The same while, you know,

to a certain extent Primus too. I like the Primus,

the Cybertron colored Primus. I don't like his

feet, so I just I never warmed up to that toy.

I just can't stand his feet. Oh, I would take

that one just to pose him in my room in Cybertron

mode. No, he looks really cool. But yeah, no,

I really do like that, you know, orange sickle

Unicron out of Japan. It's just so nerdtastic.

I love it. It is great. Yeah, anyway, power core

combiners. So yeah, I think we've. Beating this

horse to death as far as the wave one stuff goes

but what I would I would totally get behind a

Let's say a $10 price point or let's say yeah

a deluxe size price point four pack of limbs

Just limbs like a set of let's say red Let's

say, you know red and white and black and yellow

colored combatic odds that you could combine

with smolder, let's say. Like troop building

or like a weapons pack for Masters of the Universe.

Exactly. Well, yeah. Well, then each of your,

you know, not just your five packs, but each

of your commanders then can have a color coordinated

team. And, you know, you can have a... blue set

of aerial bots just for Skyburst. But let's say,

you know, I'm not really happy with these guys

on him. You could pass him over or pass all of

those over to Searchlight and they would look

just as good because, you know, they're roughly

the same shades. That's true. Absolutely. That's

great. You're a genius, sir. I love that. Ha

ha! Well, my other idea was Minicon four packs.

that would go along with your combiner teams.

So again, let's say you've got your, not the

Destructicons, they have a set that's coming

out. We saw them at BotCon and they were, I wanna

say they were Destructicons, but they're not

the Destructicons that I saw in the picture here.

They were literally they were like all gray or

all black I Mean they did have that team color

where the whole thing the whole team was it was

a very like dark gray or black color You know

and it would be interesting to have a set of

many cons That were in in similar colors Or like

I said, let's say with the existing aerial bot

set, if you have a yellow mini -con they could

plug on top of the helicopter, or a blue mini

-con, gunmetal blue mini -con that would sit

on top of the blue helicopter, or something like

that, so that if you don't have, for whatever

reason, your limbs in limb mode, you could then

have mini -cons on top of them in robot mode.

Honestly, they've already got hundreds of minicons

to choose from. You can just, you know, take

whatever from the Armada line and repurpose them.

Yes, yes, they do. If each of your guys has four

to six minicon ports, it's kind of a layup. Yeah.

And it makes a match. Yeah, no I personally though

I as much as I would love to see more mini cons

I would prefer to see like a four pack at the

deluxe price point of limbs color coordinated

for for different Commanders like you know if

you had a four pack of let's say beige and olive

colored You know Aerial bots or or even even

a set of you know combaticons That were you know

color -coded for Huffer. You know you'd know

you'd have your Huffer in combined mode all the

time and Speaking of Huffer. Let's get to him

now It is now time for the display case segment.

Mr. Kilby, who will you be talking about today?

Power core combiners Huffer. Huffer was the...

Huffer and Caliburst were actually the first

two power core combiners we saw leaked from 4chan

back in, um, gosh... January There are the pictures

a little It was a picture of the the packaging

with a picture of the toy inside of the packaging

sort of get sort of a Test of what the toy would

look like on shelves And there's so much speculation

After after that was released, but the one thing

was clear is well many cons are back and they're

frickin weapons and Because of that and because

of all the conjecture and everything I kind of

I'm kind of biased towards this toy. I kind of

fell in love with it before I even had it so

but I have him I opened it up and He I think

he's a great toy He has sort of for me I always

go back to Beast Machines Optimus Primal who

may not be the best transformer ever But he's

a great action figure Huffer is very playable

in robot mode. I mean, for his size class, he

has about all the articulation you could expect.

His robot mode is great looking. It's very Cybertron,

or very at least Unicron trilogy in its look,

where all of the other toys kind of have their

own sort of feel. I think Double Clutch kind

of looks kind of like a cross between... Universe

2 .0 and maybe Cybertron. Same thing for Bob

and Shock. Skyburst is very G2, Cyber Jetty.

Mud Slinger is very sort of energon crap looking.

But Huffer is very Cybertron, energon looking.

I think he looks really nice. Caliburst though,

I like the fact that he turns into a gun. And

I just dropped him. Where did he go? He's on

my desk here. Here he is. I'm sitting here playing

with him during our conversation. Like he's such

a fun toy. His robot mode's okay. He has this

ginormous gun on his left arm that in a way seems

cool, but in a way it just sort of sticks out

because... It's longer than his leg. If his gun

were a little bit longer, farther down his arm,

he could actually use it as a crutch. Wait, his

gun is longer than his leg? Uh -oh, that's gonna

be one of those most inappropriate Transformers

toys. Yikes. Well, it's not as inappropriate

as Searchlight's minicon name, which they want

you to say back wind, but it's totally back wind.

Totally. You know, Huffer's transformation is

simple. It's not really complicated. It does

something a little different, at least for the

toy in the size class. You always expect the

shoulders to flip forward or up. These actually

flip down, down his back. And his arms sort of

form, kind of like, almost like a backpack for

the truck. It's really different. The transformation

is kind of novel, but the vehicle mode is about

as generic as you can get. It's not that great.

As Michael pointed out during the earlier discussion,

his robot mode is not really conducive to...

power core combining mode. He doesn't look that

great when you combine him with the limbs from

the other sets. I mean, considering the line

he's in as power core combiners, you do kind

of expect the robots to look good in combined

mode. He is a little bit lacking there, but because

he's sort of my sentimental favorite, for various

reasons, more than I can even get into on the

podcast. I'm just totally enamored with this

toy. I love it to pieces. I hope they repaint

it ten times over. I will buy each one, kind

of like I wanted Energon RC when they released

the motorcycle. I will buy any iteration of this

mold that they make. I think it's great. What

do you think of that? Combiner head oh gosh,

let me pull it out Again yeah, that sounds so

wrong It's very it's very reminiscent of I'm

not real. I'm not really so much into like the

Japanese cinema, but it's kind of like Sentai

samurai Sort of looking strange kabuki head thing.

I don't know But I do like the fact that it does

It does have the eye the light piping wears eyes

light up, right? When when the lights in there,

but just to look yeah, it's a little it's a little

mighty more from Power Rangers for me, but I

I don't think I would ever ever ever use the

head. I think even in combined a moment. I would

just use the hover head and i'll just let him

be you know kind of like a punch counter punch

with the itty bitty teeny tiny little head oh

yeah i he threw me off there i'm like oh yeah

totally missed out on that second offering don't

don't nobody should buy that toy i'm sorry and

the only reason why no one should buy that toy

and spend all that money on that is because of

the tiny frigging head oh You know, I thought

the same thing until I actually saw it in person

at BotCon, and it looked so nice. I've seen video

reviews of him, and I just... The head is way

too small. If they would have found a way with

that Sunstreaker side wipe mold to... Side swipe,

not side wipe. If they found a way for the Sunstreaker

side swipe mold to get more into the car... and

have a slightly larger head it would be better

but I mean you can barely see his head over his

windshield even if you could pop his head off

I would live for that pop his head off or just

flip his head around I mean it would be kind

of ghetto but I would take it but it looks really

nice in person it really does but I don't want

to spend 60 bucks on it no I was so gonna buy

one and they sold out in like 15 minutes. They

totally Maddie collected us there. Yeah, let's

not go there. I was worried they were going to

do that with the San Diego Comic -Con stuff,

but they were smart. They actually released Blaster

and Waves, so I was able to snag a Blaster. I

gotta say, between the two websites, between

Hasbro Toy Shop, and I know we're getting off

topic here, Hasbro Toy Shop and Maddie Collector,

as part of a shop does a hell of a lot better

with their sdcc exclusive stuff than that it's

one of those damn right it does it it's so much

better the only one and i wasn't really thrilled

with this now that i've seen a video review of

the sdcc stuff and again i know we're getting

way off topic here but i'm in everyone knows

i'm a mighty mode fanatic so of course i had

to get proud so i got him but i looked at the

sdcc iron man i'm thinking holy crap it's just

the mark six which I just got that and it just

they made the the face plate fold up and they

have a face underneath it I just I just couldn't

pull the trigger on that and of course now that

one sold out but what oh that's huge though I

mean I might even figure with a face mask that's

crazy with a articulated face under it I agree

it is huge I'm not saying it isn't but I just

I just couldn't pull the trigger on him Too bad.

Yes, so getting back to Huffer here, anything

else you want to say about Huffer, Brian? I loves

it to pieces. I really can't - I can't really

articulate - He has late night rendezvous with

it, folks. No, his power core combiner port's

a little too small. Oh god! Wow, that sounds

like something XB would say to you. More than

you realize. That's very, very sad. Okay, on

that note, Michael, which one will you be talking

about this evening? Uh, I think I like Smolder

the best so far. And I'll tell you why. I dig

him because, you know, first off he's a fire

truck. And he's a Decepticon fire truck that

catches things on fire. And how could you not

dig that? I mean like right on the side of the

fire truck. There's a decepticon insignia With

fire coming off it It's like the Ghost Rider

flaming skulls of decepticon insignias Which

I thought was just terribly terribly cool. He's

got a decent amount of pain apps and in vehicle

mode It actually says fire on the side, you know,

which is kind of funny because he catches things

on fire. But what I really dig about him is that

his robot mode, and I mentioned this earlier,

his robot mode and his combined mode are, you

know, completely different. Two separate animals.

In robot mode, you know, he's got like great

big huge vertical shoulders. And His legs kind

of come down and he's got big substantial heels,

which I love you know The the heel in most you

know robot modes is very you know underrated

You know the fact that you can You know stand

a figure up and not have to worry about him falling

over Backward is very important at least to me

anyway, and you know this guy's got an awful

lot of heel behind his foot Which I dig He's

got a mini -con port on his chest that actually

folds up, folds in and out, which is kind of

neat. So if you want to put your chopster in

armor mode, you can then pop out this mini -con

port and just plug him in. If you don't want

him in armor mode, well then you fold the mini

-con port down and no one's any wiser. Couple

of things that would have been neat to see in

skyburst and bomb shock You know because they

don't have many comports on their chest You know

knowing that they were gonna repaint those As

as two packs it probably would have been a good

idea to include something like that in there

Yeah Yeah, it would have been nice, but you know

either here nor there as far as Smaller goes,

I like his head. It's actually kinda like on

a little ball joint so he can look up and turn

around and look around. But it looks, I wanna

say almost like a little fireman's helmet. And

then he's got like a little mask over his mouth.

So it kinda looks like a fireman. And then when

you put him in combined mode, His his head it's

a lot bigger, but it kind of looks to me like

a Tie fighter pilot. Oh Wow Yeah, I mean Brian

you concur. What do you think? Yeah, I can see

that Yeah, I mean he kind of looks like a tie

fighter pilot and he's got the again the really

nice yellow light piping So I mean I dig his

combined mode head I think that's kind of neat

but at the same time I dig the little one to

his little fire helmet In combined mode, the

shoulders then flip up. They're still substantial

shoulders, but they're horizontal, so they have

an awful lot of room for the minicons off to

the side. And what I really dig about this guy,

as far as his combined mode, is that everything

clips into place. you know, you bring that shoulder

up horizontally and there's a little nub on his

shoulder, on his robot mode shoulder, that if

you click it in a place, it just fits right there.

And then when you bring his robot arms around

to his back, there's a little nub, let's say,

on his forearm that plugs into a little hole

on his back. Huffer's the same way. I think that's

an aesthetic that the designers are keeping,

at least across the Deluxe toys. Yeah, I was

kind of upset with Huffer because he didn't clip

nearly as nicely. He's got a little hole for

his forearm that plugs in there, but I think

I would have liked it if there was something

where his hands are. His hands just kind of rest

on his shoulder there. I think I would have preferred

it if there was something that would plug into

his hand there so it would hold a little tighter.

Not to get too far off topic, but like bomb shock,

everything clips in tight on him. Skyburst, the

blue fins kind of fold around and fold underneath

his chest. actual pieces from the wings fold

around and plug in on top of that, he's very

tight. So, I mean, and if he's gonna, if these

combiner commanders are going to hold up limbs

in this mode, they're, you know, they're gonna

have to be tight and hold everything together.

That's kind of one of my complaints with the

energon combiners is that you know The shoulders

are really aren't meant to hold entire scout

size figures up Yeah, at least not very well

but no these guys Well for the most part, you

know, especially smolder everything locks in

tight The arms come around to the back and clip

in place really tightly, you know, it's just

Really well made they really put a lot of thought

into this and the legs actually look different

in Combined mode than they do in robot mode.

They actually flip sideways and fold up So like

that's one of the things I didn't like about

Huffer is that in combined mode his legs are

just his legs The same thing to a certain extent

with Skyburst on the aerial bot team his legs

are just his legs, you know, not so much with

bomb shock They do flip around and do something

different And to a certain extent with searchlight

his legs, you know turn sideways and lock in

place but yeah Smolder the lace flip over upside

down turn sideways and It's like if you have

Like right now I've got smolder in front of me

for you know review purposes and half of him

is in robot mode and the other half is in combined

mode So I think he You know if you cannot put

a hand over whatever over each side he looks

completely different uh -huh Yeah I don't know,

and I've been, see the funny thing is, now that

we're doing power car combiners and Brian's talking

about Huffer and you're talking about Smolder,

I don't think I've ever liked Huffer at all,

regardless whether it's the toy or whatever cartoon

he's been in, because I've seen him in G1 and

he is so freaking negative. He's like, he's almost

like, he's a whiny version of Gears. He's like,

oh this is never gonna work and Gears is like,

oh this ain't ever gonna work Yeah, um, I mean

he was nice in what was it was it a prime problem

was that the episode where he Whichever episode

it was where Megatron beat the unholy shit about

out of optimus I'll take the trailer. Yeah, yeah,

yeah. But I mean like the early episodes, just

in general, he's such a whiny little bitch. Oh

boy. Do we have anything else we want to say

about either of these toys? They rock. They do

rock. I don't think we talked much about the

minicons, but... You know, I've got Chopster

in axe mode now in the smolders hands and he

looks really cool. It's an axe with gatling guns

on How badly does that rule? Yeah Yeah, it's

not bad enough. You just chop the guy's arm off,

but then you're gonna like Shoot him with gatling

guns on top of that It's like dude. I'm just

totally gonna add insult to injury here Alright,

so I think that's going to do it for us for this

episode. Brian, do you have anything you want

to promote? Is anything going on over at RFC?

Do you guys land an interview with Scott McNeil

or anything like that? I've got an interview

that I'm working on. I don't think anyone, well,

probably there are not that many people on earth

who wanted to interview this guy more than me.

So I've been contacting him, I contacted him

a year ago. And he just now got back to me. Apparently

he's been busy. So we're working on interviewing

him. I'll mention that on RFC here in a couple

of weeks after we actually speak with him. But

I don't know that anyone besides me will care,

but this is one of the... Everyone wants to interview

Peter Cullen or, you know, Frank Welker, those

sort of guys. Me, I'm way more niche than that.

It's like, you know, there may be one or two

people, like, in G1, the only person I ever care

to talk to would be Michael Bell, really, because

he's hilarious. You know, Beast Wars, you know,

Scott McNeil is awesome. Basically, most of the

cast in Beast Wars is great. But this is from

another series, someone I've been wanting to

speak with. three years and um... it should pan

out here in a couple weeks. Awesome. Yeah, you

know, you mentioned everyone wants to interview

Frank Welker. Honestly, if I ever... if we ever

got an audio interview with him, I wouldn't know

where to begin. My brain would melt trying to

talk to him because hello, the animal guy in

voiceovers. I mean, he's done every lit... and

it's not just every big thing. It's not just

G1. It's... This guy shows up everywhere. Everywhere.

Everywhere. I mean, it's like it's the Matrix

or something. It's like all -encompassing and

holy crap. It's just one iteration after another

of Uni. It's like, can you do the Uni again?

Okay, great. Just do that one again. Do you have

any blog posts you want to promote, Michael?

Any upcoming stuff you're gonna write about?

Oh, sadly, I haven't done any blog posts at all

lately. I know, to a certain extent, you know,

I kind of feel bad about that. But, you know,

it's like, what's been going on lately? No, no,

no, hold on, I'm mowing the lawn. You've been

on a majority of ToyCast since episode 7, a majority

of them. You were on episode 14 to 24 of TFG1,

you're gonna be on all 30 episodes of Beast Unleashed.

Hello, it's time to get that podcasting post

done. I've been thinking about that too. I think

what I'm gonna do is write up a really big post

about what I've done and why I did it and how

I did it. And then at the very end say, okay,

now I'm retiring from podcasting. It's funny,

I'm actually trying to think of stuff that you

and Steve and I can do after Beast Unleashed,

and I can't think of anything. I pretty much

have a very limited selection of things that

I'm interested in. For me, I can't really do

movie review stuff because I'm just not that

interested in movies. I never go out to see movies

at the theater. And I never see a movie more

than once so it's like if I've already seen it

I'm not gonna watch it again, you know for review

purposes unless it's like, you know Transformers

in which case I'll watch it over and over and

over again You mean the original movie right

not those crappy Bay former films You know, I

oh when when my son Aidan was born You know when

you have these late -night feedings at 3 in the

morning and such I would sit up and watch the

1986 movie, and I probably watched it maybe a

dozen times, just during feedings. And I'd feed

him, and he'd eat and fall asleep, and then I'd

hit stop and fall asleep myself. And three hours

later, he'd wake up again, he'd already be there,

I'd pick him up, make him some formula and feed

him again, turn the movie back on. And I'd watch

it. To spice things up, I'd watch it with different

commentaries. I've watched that movie so many

times. But I wouldn't do that with other movies.

Aside from Star Wars, let's say, the original.

But for most other movies, I won't watch them

again. I just recently rewatched the 86 movie

and I'm actually... Off and on I've been going

through the matrix box set from Shout Factory

So I think I'm up to like disc two at this point

But I haven't gotten too far into it and I'm

noticing and this is again This is slightly off

topic since we're gonna close the show here in

a minute, but They didn't really remaster a whole

lot because in the episode of All the sky fire

episode it's either fire in the sky or it's one

of those early early episodes in g1 In season

one where prime and a couple of the other ones

get captured I think it was the one with the

ink and temple in in the Andes Mountains Prime

in the original Rhino sets is blue at one point

and in the shot Factory said he's still blue

So I'm not sure how remastered or recolored or

whatever the hell that shot Factory supposedly

did to these things it's still the same print

I don't think they've gone back and changed problems

with the animation but they may have gone back

and cleaned up the colors so whereas over the

last 20 odd years, the colors may have degraded,

and he's no longer blue. Now he's more of a very

light, dirty blue. Or they came in and said,

well, that's not color what he's supposed to

be. Let's update all the colors and clean this

up a bit. So I mean, if he's blue in 1984, he's

going to be blue now. He's just going to be a

brighter, happier blue than what he was, let's

say, five years ago on the original. That's the

way I would want it. Yeah. Well, like, uh, what

was it, the Rhino sets that replaced all the

sound effects with newer sound effects. I don't

want that. Yeah, it's like, no, I could do without

that. I mean, I didn't mind it. It was an awful

terrible, but, you know, don't mess with it.

That's the one thing I've noticed about the Shout

Factory set. On those interstitials, like when

Victor Curly says, Transformers will be back

after these messages and you see Jazz or whoever

it is, there's no sound effects, thank God. Cuz

on the rhino ones I specifically remember I was

hoping to see the are hoping to hear the Transformation

sound on the rhino ones when the optimus prime

interstitial comes up and he transforms from

truck to robot And it's that same weird rhino

sound effect. It's not the transforming sound

But those are those are gone out of the shadow

factory set. Thank God So I guess on that note,

I guess we can close this unless you guys want

to say anything else I'm good, I think. I don't

know. Join the voicemail. No! Don't! Shut up!

Oh yeah, since you brought that up, I'm gonna

call you under the bus. I recently... Well, as

of this episode, I haven't received yet, but

I recently won a YouTube contest, my first ever

YouTube contest PR and a contest for an animated

Rodimus, and I won it. And I... commented, and

of course my YouTube stuff is connected to Facebook.

Michael here comments on the thing and says,

and I'm looking right at it, hey, congrats, looks

like you finally get one before everyone else

in the country. I'm thinking, what? What the

hell is wrong with you? That's like so negative.

Well, no, because if you understand what happened

with Blanchard and RC, yeah, I mean, literally,

I think You were the last guy in the country

to get RC. Yeah, probably. RC was gone from everywhere

except, you know, maybe Kilby's Toys R Us. But

I know I hadn't seen one in like a month. I honestly

don't expect to ever see him ever anymore, but

the fact that you got one I was like wow I'm

surprised there are any left yeah, and you know

I mean just maybe all the scalpers came in and

took them all up, but Really surprised to see

that you got one that late in the game. Yeah,

well when I originally read the comment. I'm

like well everyone else We here on ToyCaster

calling them early adopters, but everybody else

that has gotten this guy before he's actually

at retail? That's what I thought you were talking

about, and I'm like, whoa, what the hell kind

of comment is that? Oh, no, no, it wasn't so

much like that. It was the fact that this guy

is going to be another Toys R Us exclusive that

I'm probably not going to see here in Indiana

for another two months, if at all. Go up to Ohio,

because Thorzine got one already. Well, maybe

maybe they'll be here sure I don't know but I

know that When RC first started coming out I

would go to the stores I didn't find them and

I went to the stores like once every couple of

weeks They never came out and at one point I

started finding a Cybertron ratchet and I'm like,

well, you know here they open up one case and

The scalpers come in and get all the RC's I don't

even think it's a fact of scalpers. I know that

adds to it, but I think Hasbro, with these last,

you know, breaths of animated, I think they short

-packed it. I think, you know, if you have, say,

eight to a case, or six, however many are in

a single case of wave toys, you know, say it's

eight, you got six ratchets, well, four ratchets

in like four hours, I don't know. If it's six

to a case they probably put six four ratchets

in there and two RC's so you get two RC's per

case So you get only six cases so well what you

end up with is an entire shelf full of Cybertron

Ratchets that aren't gonna sell they've still

got Cybertron Ratchets on the shelf which makes

me wonder how You know enticed they are to order

more of these Yeah, and I would love to buy an

Ironhide. I wasn't so thrilled about Ratchet,

but I already got a Ratchet. Old Ratchet. Crotchety

Ratchet. I like him. He's great. It's a great

toy. I like it. Yeah. But no, I finally found

the RCs. I was really happy. And I know I was

late to the game, and I'm finding them at $45

on eBay. I'm like, I'm not going to pay that

much. And I thought I got lucky when I found

the two that I got. Wasn't gonna be a dick about

it actually left a few on the shelves as opposed

to buying them all up and selling them on eBay

I bought them and gave them all away. Yeah, I

bought them with you I bought them with the intention

of selling them, but I gave way a couple on the

show and The rest I ended up just giving to friends

I actually took them to BotCon for like a prize

for the table and no, I mean like I stopped by

Hooper X my friend in Atlanta I'm like, hey do

you have a RC? He's like no now you do I gave

I gave Rob one I gave Yeah, I'm a sucker You

were a gentleman sir. Yes So thank you for joining

us here on toycasters always in contact with

us early feedback for the show Visit the website

geek cast radio comm you can comment on each

episode post Join the forums, protocolempire

.com slash nexus. Leave the show feedback in

iTunes. Please do this. Follow us on Twitter.

The show name there is tftoicast. Mine is tfju1mike.

Brian, what is your Twitter? Bkillby for me,

B -K -I -L -B -Y, or tfradio for Radio Free Cybertron.

That's what we go under. We call it tfradio because

that's what we've called it since 1999. We're

kind of old. And Michael. Pecan, CT, Michael.

Become a fan on Facebook. Search Geekcast Radio

Network. You can also search Radio Free Cybertron

for their fan page. I think that's what you guys

go under, right? Yeah. We have lots of shows,

but we typically call it Radio Free Cybertron.

No, I mean, as far as searching on Facebook for

the fan page, it's Radio Free Cybertron. That's

it. Call, don't join, call the voicemail line.

That was the show you're leaving the message

for and your name, 502 -526 -5821. We hope you

enjoyed this episode of Toycast, 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 Brian Kilby. I was going to say, come on,

Michael, get with the game already. Well, you

said, okay, Brian, go ahead. Can I go now? That's

how I leave my voicemail. It's always, Brian

killed me. You know, it's weird, as I always

say, Michael Wilson. And then it's like, people

call and say, Michael Wolfson. Wolfson. Do I

sound like that? Do I say Wolfson? I don't know.

Alright, so thank you for joining us. Until next

time.