Masterpiece Rodimus & the Evolution of Transformers Engineering

Cliffjumper, commence countdown. Five, four,

three, two... I'm the God - everything from lookout

mountain a little to the left a little bit more

Welcome to toy cast. This is yet another special

episode We are still not back with the regular

episodes yet And I'll have more news about that

at the end of this at the end of this podcast,

but today As you know, I am TFGio Mike and joining

me is the goddamn proto man. Hello, sir. Hey

Pretty good pretty good and today our special

discussion since he has finally been released

is MP09 Masterpiece Rodimus Convoy And silence.

I was accepting huge amounts of clapping and

laughter and then all of a sudden it's like,

oh, that guy again. When you've bought three

of them, did a YouTube video, they got 16 ,000

views and messed with it to death. Let me tell

you something, even before this toy came out,

we did so much speculation, taking it apart,

CG models of it to figure out the transformation.

It's like we're almost burnt out on it. Right,

yeah. We were supposed to actually do this recording

a few weeks ago when Proto Man actually first

got the figure. Our schedules didn't mesh together.

Yeah, I've been crazy. That's all right. It's

no big deal. Now, luckily, we have a nice clear

evening. Yes. Why do we want to start with Masterpiece?

I think we should start with actual Masterpiece

overall because I mean Like they came out with

Masterpiece Prime, and he was just amazing well

the thing with Masterpiece Prime though was he

was at least according to Takara Hasbro was that

he took about three years of engineering to make

him personally and The one thing that I always

point out is we kind of see the progression through

other toys to the masterpiece toy of how they're

going to do that perfect Optimus Prime or perfect

whatever and I think a good example of that is

say like not so much Optimus but Starscream where

like the first Starscream we had that's the base

Starscream the G1 Starscream and then they did

the robot masters Starscream which was It's kind

of the G1 toy, but little tweaks and twists here

to make it more show accurate, but it's still

not there yet. And then they did the reissue

of the G1 toy in the book box to Kara, and they

gave it G1 accurate colors. And then they gave

us the classics toy. So they slowly do engineering

twists here and there to learn, when they finally

get to the Masterpiece toy, how to go about it.

In the case of Optimus, it was kind of the same

thing. We had the original G1 toy. It was there,

but it wasn't completely like the cartoon model.

Then when they did the Powermaster, they were

like, well, if we do this twist where now the

back is the front and the front is the back,

we could get a more defining... chess that looks

similar to the show model, but it's still not

there yet. The kibble's in the back, and obviously

it's supposed to be a separate character completely,

Power Master Optimus Prime, but it's just the

engineering's there. And you get that again and

again and again, and you slowly see that progression

of evolution of engineering using the Optimus

character with the thought in mind, I guess,

down the road for using it for a perfect Optimus

Prime toy. And when you look at the end with

Masterpiece Optimus, how he transforms, where

his transformation is completely completely different

from his G1 counterpart where it actually is

a twist of the torso. There's a way that they

get that defining lower torso abdomen region.

We see that also in a good example of a robot

master, Optimus Prime, which shows where that

engineering comes from. What I'm getting at with

Rotomus was that we had a good couple of Rotomus

toys where they were testing water with that

kind of engineering. We started with the Masterpiece

toy where it's like, okay, let's see. how we

could get nice defining legs instead of just

the simple big block legs that the original G1

toy had. But they didn't engineer out the engine

on the chest. The engine was still on the chest.

Then we saw that with the animated toy where

they were able to figure out a way to work in

a way that the kibble of the legs could be still

super thin and nice and tucked away. yet we could

still have a beautiful car mode. And then on

top of that, they figured out a way to engineer

out the engine. So while it is present in the

vehicle mode, it's not present in the robot mode.

And you take those two toys, the animated Rotomus

and the classics Rotomus, and you fuse those

two concepts together, and you literally get

the final engineering almost of what is Masterpiece

Rotomus today. Especially if you've handled all

three toys, you really see like how the progression

worked there Yeah, I've seen you know, I've got

the classics version and I've got the animated

version and it just Leaps and bounds in oh, yeah,

they did an engineering with that and that's

it when you finally will get your hands on the

masterpiece one You're gonna start seeing So

when you're transforming it specifically from

vehicle mode to robot mode, you're going to go,

oh, there are some aspects of how animated Rotomus

functions here. There are some aspects of how

classic Rotomus was engineered and functioned

here. And I almost feel like, well, I don't want

to degrade Deluxe Toys and all toys that come

before, but I almost feel like all the toys that

came before were almost testing grounds for the

ideas that would be later used. for a Masterpiece

toy. It's almost the same case with Grimlock.

I don't want to install Masterpiece's Grimlock

toy, but it's almost the G1 toy with articulation.

That toy was perfect when it was a G1 toy. There

was very little to improve on from there. But

again, going to the cases of Megatron, where

I remember there was a Takara scan from a magazine.

where they were saying when they figured out

how to engineer the trigger off of the crotch

region, and they figured out a way to put it

on the leg, they all went out drinking afterwards,

the engineers, all the Japanese engineers. They

were all so happy when they figured out a way

to move it. But granted, it's very hard to work

with what they had to work with, so people complain

about the skinny legs. But considering the progression

of how they've gone that far, from that original

G1 toy to what we have today to make it as accurate

as possible. Some might even debate that if they

tried again today, we might even get a completely

different toy, maybe even better. It's kind of

the same way how people look at, we'll put a

quote, we'll call them classics toys, but you

look at classics toys today like Blur and...

and the later ones like Trax and what's going

to be coming out with Wheeljack and everything.

at Rodimus and you already see even within classics

the engineering changes that have happened and

I always ask myself what would have happened

if Rodimus was made as a classics toy today would

he would be a completely different well I wouldn't

say he'd be a completely different toy but I

think the engineering would have been different

I think he would have been less blocky maybe

a little taller more engineering put in because

I know that now when I put him next to blur or

Wheeljack or tracks and stuff and jazz. I almost

feel he's a little out of place sometimes in

engineering. I don't know, that's me personally

because I put him with the Henkei one and maybe

that's also the colors. It's amazing how you

see that transition of engineering. I feel that

masterpiece toys are always that end of the line.

It's always like everything that we've done up

to this point with this character all comes to

that boiling point. right here. That comes from

a stand even of different series where again,

even though animated has its own aesthetic and

kind of way how toys transform, even in that

case, those aspects from even the animated Rodimus

were interplayed into making the masterpiece

Rodimus and those thought processes. Again, the

concept of doubling the size of the character

It's kind of like how animated lockdown is and

with animated Rotomus by the length of the car

underneath is almost doubled due to the transformation.

Because a lot of people, they see Masterpieces

Rotomus as alt mode next to a lot of deluxe cars

and they go, wow, it's not that much bigger.

Yes, that is true. But keep in mind also it's

supposed to attach to a trailer and that will

make it freaking huge. But it's more so because

it suffers from what lockdown is or G1 skids,

where when he opens up he doubles in size easily,

which is similar to how the... which is similar

to how the animated Rodimus toy was. And again,

there's so many little, especially the way the

sides of the doors are and how they clip together

to make the side details for the Masterpiece

toy. It's very similar to animated Rodimus, but

with little cues here and there. It's so interesting

because when I did these videos of Masterpiece

Rodimus, I busted out all my Rodimus figures

at the same time. I transformed them all. and

in both into vehicle mode and then back again

and then i was comparing uh... you know by doing

that i was also able in the moment to be reminded

of how the engineering is changed similar was

done differently and this toys is absolutely

incredible others a lot of people that that feedback

all i got a broken box i own three of these and

none of them have a single problem and these

were the quote hong kong editions which we send

my opinion should have been that quality was

right but They were all fine. One of them, I

find that when I try to do the vehicle mode,

the shin flaps don't click perfectly, but otherwise

that's the only problem I've had is that one

has that little problem. I don't blame them because

I know that P. Awe, he did a video and his visor

for his doesn't stay up, it always is loose.

But mine, I haven't had that problem, you know?

Yeah. And, uh... Me personally, as much as I

love Rodimus, just from all the different...

Like, I saw a video from Octobot, I saw a video

from Bolt Matrix. With all the issues that people

have been having, I cannot justify a $200 toy.

I mean, as much as I love Rodimus, just like

you do, I... Me personally, I just can't justify

putting that kind of thing on a toy that could

possibly arrive broken. I don't blame a lot of

people and what I do suggest for most people

is that wait for the Hasbro release. It's funny,

especially the Skywarp. The Skywarp is the best

example. When Starscream came out, I'm going

to use Starscream as an example though. When

Masterpiece Starscream came out, I remember at

TFCon, people were like, before the deal room

opened, I was in the deal room in advance. I

was in the deal room in advance, and I was looking

around people, and then I would go out of the

deal room while the lineup is there, and people

are like, oh, is Masterpiece Starscream in there?

How much are the dealers asking? I'll be like,

oh, they're going for about $230. Imagine, $230

for this Masterpiece toy. And then you fast forward

years later, and Walmart has Masterpiece Skywarp,

which is the Masterpiece Starscream toy in engineering,

mold, and concept. There's nothing in terms of

budget has changed. except for maybe the box.

Yet the masterpiece Skywarp toy here in Walmart

was at one point on clearance for $28 Canadian.

It's so mind -blowing how things change. When

I first saw it, like when it was first announced

that MP09 was coming out, and I got super excited

because they had announced that they were going

to be able to do four different modes. They're

going to be doing all this different stuff. And

he looks amazing. There are a few things that

I would probably change or as far as just work

on as far as the engineering goes. But overall,

I was really super psyched. I was one of the

first ones to have a BBTS pre -order. Of course,

I canceled it before the thing came out. But

it's just one of those things where now that

I've seen, you know, I mean, and we're not talking

about people that do videos that, you know, bang

their toys, you know what I mean? They're not

being rough with it, but I mean, just touching

the thing, like touching a leg and a leg panel

falls off. I did see videos with that too and

I found that fascinating because some people

have really had bad luck with this. I will admit

when something sucks, even if it's Rodimus related,

anyone who tunes into that Rodimus review of

the box that he comes with, the Hong Kong edition,

I think that thing is ridiculous. I think that

thing is the stupidest thing in the world. When

something sucks, I'll admit it, even if it's

raw and misrelated. But I've been so fortunate

and very lucky to not get any lemons, so to speak,

where other people, it's like, oh, broken in

the box. It's like, wow, that's really bad luck,

especially with a toy that's supposed to be high

-end and everything. But you know what? I said

it in my video, too, was that The thing is that

a lot of Transformer fans that I've met, they're

very finicky with their toys. I see them at conventions

and they'll literally sit with a toy and transform

it back and forth over and over, just sitting

on a couch or something at a convention talking.

ADD, but they have to always be fiddling with

something in their hands. I can understand that.

I have what's called fiddle toys on my desk at

home, too, where there are certain deluxe toys

and everything. masterpiece toys they're high

-end expensive collectibles and those are toys

that you transform vehicle -mode robot vehicle

-mode robot -mode vehicle -mode robot -mode robot

-mode robot -mode robot -mode robot -mode robot

-mode robot -mode robot -mode robot -mode robot

-mode robot -mode I was in Japan, excuse me.

They have a line called So of Chogokin, which

is their equivalency of masterpiece toys for

theirs. And those toys, they're gorgeous, they

have multiple hands and all that, but they are

not toys that you play with. They're made with

metal, you know, you mess with those over and

over metals gonna rub paint off and you know

They're just they're gorgeous looking pieces

that you kind of put them in that one perfect

pose and it kind of sits there forever You know,

which is a shame considering something like Rodimus

that has four or five six different play modes

that could lead to really good poses and everything

Yeah, you know so but at the same time I have

to remind people that this is something that

you handle with care You have to. I'm not saying

to the listeners, you're probably banging your

toy around. I do agree that there has been a

few reports of really bad luck with some people

where I could see how the leg panel thing could

be an issue. But I haven't had that issue with

mine. The closest thing, again, like I said,

that I've had in terms of a QC or problem was

that one panel. And part of me feels that I'm

just not doing the leg transformation right.

I don't know. There's still part of me that feels

that, too. But again. I have another one and

another one and they're all okay. The only complaint

I could give is they should have really thought

about the amount of extra paint that was used

on the trailer that scratches onto the spoiler.

That was really dumb. I will admit that that

was really dumb and that's something that obviously

won't be present when we get the American release

because the trailer won't be there. But the standalone

Rodimus figure is great. It's a great, great

figure. The engineering is amazing. The guns

are amazing. Everything is there. The chest opens

up. There was a lot of stuff that, in all honesty,

if they wouldn't have made the chest open up,

it would have sucked, but it was something that

I almost felt in the back of my head they weren't

going to do. You know, I almost felt like there's

no way in hell they could engineer that trailer

that chest to open to have the matrix and still

be able to do the trans because I kind of had

in my mind that how they were going to hide the

engine was going to be similar to animated erotimus

Right again going back to how they do the engineering.

So I mean there was just It was it was very impressive

to see how the whole process works, you know

Yeah, we have to admit though that matrix sucks.

Well, it's not that it sucks is that One thing

that people don't realize is I want everyone

to now close their eyes and remember the 86 movie

and remember when Rodimus opens the matrix and

goes, now light our darkest hour. That matrix

that he is holding is freaking huge. It's huge.

Go back. Google an image right now of Rodimus

holding the Matrix when he opens it in the 86

movie. It is huge in comparison to him. The Matrix

kind of has this thing where it shifts in size

depending on the situation. When Prime takes

it out of his chest and he's holding it in his

hand as it slowly trickles out of his hand and

then falls to the ground, it's super small. Optimus

Prime is palming the Matrix. Now think about

Optimus' fingers. going into the holes on that

matrix, it would have been impossible, you know?

Like, it shifts in size the matrix. That's a

part of G1. Yeah, I mean the biggest complaint

I have with the one that came with the masterpiece

figure, or the one that comes with the masterpiece

figure is, you know, they're all, you know, Takara

and all them are all about, oh, well he's got

fully articulated hands, or fully articulated

fingers, or whatever else. They couldn't have

made a... Okay, they could have included this

Matrix accessory just to have inside of his chest,

and they could have also included a separate

one so he could actually hold it. That's what

I would have liked to, actually. I completely

agree with you there, that I think they should

have included the one that could fit in the chest,

for the sake of, because in terms of scale, if

they would have made one that he could hold,

it wouldn't fit in his chest. But even if you

take the instructions for the Masterpiece toy,

And you turn to, I believe it's like page three

or four, they actually have a section. in Japanese,

where they show Masterpiece Rotimus holding up

G1 Masterpiece Optimus Prime's matrix. And it

says, it gives the suggestion to use the matrix

that comes with MP01 for this display purpose.

And it shows how the articulated fingers work

with MP01's matrix. So they knew that. It's just

that I don't think they wanted to shell out the

extra plastic to include it with the figure.

Because even in the instruction manual, they

make that suggestion. Take MP01 Convoy's Matrix

and use it with your Masterpiece for Autumus

Prime. It was designed to work, but they didn't

do it in the end. Who knows? See, in here, and

here's where I suggest again, here's where maybe

our Hasbro version will surprise us. Let me tell

you something, ever since that Battle in Space

2 -pack came out with Cyclonus, it showed me

that anything is possible because that Matrix

that comes in that 2 -pack, and what I'm talking

about for people who aren't familiar with the

Battle in Space 2 -pack where it comes with the

recolored Reveal the Shield Rodimus and the Reveal

the Shield Cyclonus, and it comes with the comic

book and the little die -cast Matrix. That little

die -cast Matrix was an exclusive that came with

a G1 reissue toy from a Wonderfest exclusive.

convoy that came out in 2002. It only came with

that toy and then later on they recast it and

used it for the Galvatron reissues only in Japan,

but again all associated with G1 toys and it

had a chain around the neck and everything. Yet

it somehow ends up in this American release plastic

two pack for new toys in a Toys R Us of America.

Anything is possible now. Anything is possible

for accessories. If they could give us a transformable

firebolt and MP01's Matrix recast it in more

nicer, I guess you could call it movie -accurate

colors and include it with Aronimus, I would

not be surprised because this reveal the Shield

2 -pack that comes with that die -cast Matrix,

that Matrix doesn't work with nobody. It's just

there. No one could hold it. No one could use

it. It's just there. It was a little extra that

they threw in for no reason whatsoever. Yeah,

and I mean, you know, even that Matrix, I mean,

no one can, you know, New Year's Convoy couldn't

hold it or whatever that exclusive was. New Year's

Convoy probably couldn't hold it. I know for

a fact on the recolor, I know for a fact that

G1 Galvatron couldn't hold it. Well, first of

all, G1 Galvatron has closed fists. Well, yeah,

the whole point with that was the New Year's

Convoy one, that Matrix, it comes with a chain.

that you're supposed to wear around your neck.

You're supposed to wear that matrix around your

neck. And with the New Year's Convoy, because

how it works is there's a little tab on that

matrix that when you flip it upside down, it'll

fit in his chest. And that's it. It's the same

thing with the Battle in Space 2 pack for anyone

who's listening. Take that Matrix, find your

G1 Optimus Prime, it'll fit in his chest. Then

when the Galvatrons came out, they took advantage

of the fact that it comes on a chain that a human

could wear. Now you could wear it around your

Galvatron, reenacting the 86 movie. It was just

this obscure accessory that really no one could

hold. Nobody could hold it. Not a single toy

could hold it properly. We're not talking big

convoy where it has pegs and it could fit in.

This was a piece of die -cast jewelry accessory

that had no purpose aside from being pretty looking.

I could see Masterpiece Rodimus, the Hasbro release.

I guess they'll call it Rodimus or Rodimus Prime,

probably Rodimus. I could see them just releasing

it and it coming with the MP01 Matrix. and maybe

a fishing rod or something. That's another thing

too. Like I always say, expect the unexpected.

We look at Grimlock. The first Grimlock, it came

with the platter and the apron to reenact ...

I think it was ... fight and flee. I don't remember

the exact episode of season three where Grimlock

was a waiter for that comic release scene. But

the point is that that Japanese release of the

masterpiece did that. Then the Japanese threw

us a curveball that blew even my mind. Their

next exclusive was a homage to the G1 comic books

they never saw in their entire lives. and that

colors, and then they included an accessory related

to the comics that they have never seen in their

entire lives. It was something that not a single

collector would have got. Because also, to my

knowledge, the Japanese have never got translated

Japanese versions of the Marvel comics. They

never had their version of a big tray paperback

in Japanese. So it was just this wacky thing

that they did. Which version did we get in America?

We got that one with the crown? Yeah with the

crown King Grimlock So it shows that anything

is possible. We could get the wacky crazy left

-sided ideas and and just completely You know

surprise us with things. I mean Especially now

the way that Hasbro shows us how they could easily

now remold the head of something. Oh, yeah Okay,

we're going to take Strax's and give it a completely

new head, and now it's Skullgrin, and then they'll

show us something like what they showed us with

taking tracks and turning it into Wheeljack and

see how many little changes are done there. Or

another good example, although it's a little

less minor, but Drift to Blur. Let's change this.

Let's change that. Let's change accessories."

It really makes a different kind of toy. That

kind of stuff shows that it's not a big issue

for them if they need to go back and remold or

recast or throw something in something to make

it different. Not to mention whatever complaints

existed now with Masterpiece Rotomus from the

Takara release, now that it's been out in the

air. It's a good thing maybe Japan got it first

because they're the test market and then when

it's brought over here, the little tweaks could

be made to make it perfect so that we don't get

a broken in the box idea. Yeah. Since we're talking

about the Matrix successor a while ago, one of

my buddies, Bob Glimmer, had gotten a package

from one of his friends which included we're

uh... is has just generations or is he really

sure i can i can never use uh... generations

did i love that was uh... jazz was revealed she'll

see at the end of the uh... yeah bob glimmer

had gotten reveal the shield jazz and money mugs

jazz and i just put a link for you and in the

in the chat there at the posted on face book

This is how Autobot jazz should be so I looked

at the I looked at the image and the first I

was the first one to comment on the status I

was like, so you want him to be depressed and

always doubt himself? He's like the opposite

I know I just had to I just had to throw the

Man responsibilities I just I just had to throw

the Rodimus thing back that was hilarious But,

um, yeah, I mean, Masterpiece Eronymous, he looks

amazing. As you said, he's one of those toys,

along with all Masterpiece toys. They're meant

for display only. They're not meant for, you

know, transforming back and forth, back and forth.

Yeah, like the Megatron. Like, you know, that's

the funny thing. Everyone covets and loves the

Megatron. But I never hear, I never hear from

people how it is a fragile toy. And it is a fragile

toy, but I never heard people complaining. I've

heard people complaining about how it suffers

from what we call cosmic rust. Where apparently

some of their masterpiece Megatrons, they're

rusted now from just being in storage. But then

again, I don't know, maybe that's a unique situation

for their location. Mine hasn't suffered from

that yet, but I'm in a dry basement. I don't

know. Every Masterpiece toy has its quirks. Even

MP01 Optimus, he's very bottom heavy and those

toes need to be in a specific position otherwise

he will topple over and cause some damage because

he's a heavy ass toy. He has all diecast. Yeah,

as I'm saying, he could really fuck some shit

up. Just to swear if I have to, but he could

really mess some stuff up and it's just... That's

just it like every toy has its works of the entire

masterpiece line There's no real perfect masterpiece,

and if I had to say there was one It's probably

the convoy, but they took three to four years

to make that one They've been thinking about

that one for years where everything else the

engineering was as a result of the progression

of other figures because It's the same thing

when they interviewed the guy who did Who did

Masterpiece Rodimus, and we have to keep in mind

also We didn't know that Masterpiece Rodimus

was the next Masterpiece until it was only six

months to it. To give you an example of that,

BotCon 2010, I was in the audience with a whole

bunch of the other TFW crew members, Vangelis

and Tony Bacala and everyone and GogDog. Aaron

Archer was talking about the Masterpiece toys

and everything and someone asked, when's the

next Masterpiece toy and whose it's going to

be? And then Aaron Archer pointed out this little

Japanese guy in the audience, sitting among us.

And he's like, oh, that's, you know, Yokushiro,

whatever, who's working on the next Masterpiece

toy. So why don't you go ask him? He said it

jokingly. And so right away, I bum rush the guy.

We didn't know that Rodimus was next. I had an

assumption that he was next, but in the back

of my mind I always felt, well, there's so many

other higher tier characters that in my opinion,

I wouldn't say deserve it, but it's just like

a sound wave in my opinion would have made more

money. Even though it's not necessary, do we

really need a masterpiece sound wave? Maybe not.

Masterpieces, I mean, G1 sound wave is pretty

close to begin with. It's not one of those toys

that really needs an update and an improvement.

Why could you want Ironhide, let's say? Let's

not go there. We could go on for hours talking

about it. But you understand what I mean, though.

Yeah, yeah. It's not one of those toys that it

really needs a masterpiece treatment because

the original is so horrible. So in the back of

my mind, I'm like, well... I feel that a sound

wave would do it more justice in terms of marketing

and monetary sales, but then there's the other

part of me that goes, well, Japan really likes

Rodimus. They really like him, so that other

part of me is like, I could see it happen. Then

the other part of me is like, yeah, but then

there's the repaint potential. why did star scream

work you know because you could repay them to

death blighted optimist work as you can do a

madness of the nemesis of the better than that

and that about you know and you know you even

with grimlock like i just said before when they

had to repaint and they have to really dig deep

and go to the you know that the american comic

book color scheme to find a repaint form because

there really is much we need to keep two colors

the japanese would have a clue what that is either

yeah i think with the masterpiece anonymous and

this would probably be regardless the actual

issues with the toy for those of those of us

in the fandom that had issues with the toy for

those of them that bought it I think for me honestly

and I know you know I always you know me I always

have to work this in just looking at Hot Rod's

face and Rodimus Prime's face on that masterpiece

toy there is room for a goatee that's all I'm

saying You know what, and I do not doubt it that

they'll do a black repaint. I think it would

be a missed opportunity for them. It would cost

me money, but I do not doubt that they will do

that. I could see them doing a crystal version.

I could see them doing a Primus Gold version.

I could see them doing a Black Rodimus or Shattered

Glass, whichever one catches your fancy, whichever

repaint you would want to go about it because

Black Rodimus has existed. G1 continuity, or

you could do shattered glass if they want to

do something that's more of an homage to the

American concept. You have to realize that color

scheme was used for titanium Rodimus Prime, and

it was called Metasaur. There are so many ways

that they could go about this, so there's potential

with Rodimus. I could see it happening completely.

I know it will it's just it might not happen

right away But I know well, I just hope none

of it is lucky draw because that's gonna really

that's gonna really kill me Yeah, yeah, I'm buying

deluxe lucky draws for five hundred six hundred

dollars, and it's making me you know crazy Lucky

draw forget about it. Yeah, I I As much as I

like the way that the lucky draws look I hate

that concept That's Japan That is straight up

Japan. They do that with their video games. Back

in the 80s, they would have, oh, Mega Man is

going to have eight gold card editions and they're

going to be lucky drawed out to eight contest

winners of a drawing contest. They'll do that

stuff. Mystery of Convoy, the Famicom Nintendo

game. They did a lucky draw of that where only

50 of them in the world are silver. I was lucky

enough to get one thanks to my buddy Hydra. But

in general, that kind of stuff just doesn't come

up and it's always expensive. And that's video

games. They do that with everything. They do

that with playing cards. They do that with...

They're a very monetary marketing... society

and that's a whole other topic but yeah that's

a whole other topic. That's just how they function.

There's always that consideration. That's why

when you look at G1 as a whole, and I'm talking

84 to 80, let's say 91, right up to Action Masters.

You don't see repaints or remold repaints or

whatever that much really. I mean if there was

a repaint it was because it pre -existed in the

Daikon line. If there was an Inferno to a Grapple

or a Skywarp to a Starscream, it is because it

existed actually in the Daikon line previously.

There never was a case where they said, okay,

let's see what we could do with Wheeljack now.

Let's see what we could do with Mirage now. Let's

see what we could do with Chrome Dome now. That

was American marketing. But now they've learned

from the Japanese because the Japanese Armada

introduced that to us in full, although actually

car robots introduced that to us, which is known

as robots in disguise in a fuller form. But it's

just like, hey, you repaint the toy, you call

it a powered up version, you double your sales

and you save on engineering. And then we saw

that like crazy in Armada and Ergon. I mean,

but that's when the Japanese got their hands

back on the franchise. But what was before Car

Robots? Beast Machines, Beast Wars. I love Beast

Wars. When did we ever get a repaint when the

character actually was in the show? Or in the

rare exception, Buzzsaw. I would say K9 to Wolfang,

but that was actually a remold. Because in Wave

2, we had two repaints. We had Cheetor. being

repainted in the Tigatron and we had Tarantulas

being repainted in the Black Arachnia. And they

were the most least shallow repaints of them

all. Why? Because they were actually in the show.

Those repaints wouldn't even have existed if

they weren't in the show. So it shows that...

Back then, the mentality was why would we screw

the fans out of just repainting a toy to make

more money if there's no purpose behind it. It

wasn't until the Japanese got their hands back

on the franchise after Beast Machines with Car

Robots that they begin their little marketing

truck and how they do things. They repaint, they

repaint, they repaint. Let's be German efficient

here and see how much we get. pull out of every

mold. Hasbro then said, hey, that's a pretty

darn good idea. And then they kept on trucking

with that themselves. You see it even in our

beloved animated. We had repaints. We had, hey,

let's paint Bumblebee black. I mean, the movie

line, which is completely American, is plagued

with that. Yeah. Millions of Bumblebees. that

are repainted in different colors, and Stealth

B, and Mist B, and Premium B, and BBBB. So it

won't shock me that they won't waste the mold.

They won't, especially something like this. Overall,

I think that Masterpiece Rodimus is an extremely

good figure. Like you said, once you hit Masterpiece

status, you're... I'm sure if Rodimus or Hot

Rod or whoever is going to be in, hopefully not,

but Dark of the Moon or maybe in Transformers

Prime or any future... That's the only place

you could go from there. Right. That's what I'm

saying. Masterpiece is like Ascension. You're

on a higher plane. It's just to cut you off because

you have the classics toy. Every classics toy

is trying to be a masterpiece toy but within

its own budget. That's the mentality of a classics

toy. Then you have the animated toys which are

trying to be as best they could homaging the

character within its budget. And in the case

of animated Rodimus, it was trying its darndest

to be G1 Rodimus and be great within its budget

and its aesthetic design. When you hit that masterpiece

toy, any Rodimus toy that's going to come afterwards

is not going to attempt that anymore. They're

going to have to go in a different direction.

And all I could see that being is if there's

a prime Rodimus. or a War for Cybertron Rodimus,

or a, like we said before, Dark of the Moon Rodimus.

That's the only direction they could go now because

after you hit Masterpiece, it's like there's

nowhere to go from there. You've won the Stanley

Cup. You can't go any higher. I still wish that

the black repaint of Animated Rotimus, the Hyper

Hobby exclusive, I still wish that was more shattered

glass. But I get, I like the little bio that

he comes with and all that stuff, so I get why

he has a con symbol and all that, but I still

wish it was a shattered glass Animated Rotimus.

And you know what, but here's the thing, and

I always say this, like, you never know. You

never know. Like, look, 2011. we got animated

across the board for BotCon, what's to say that

we might not get another animated set that you're

after? And it'll be Shattered Glass Rodimus.

You never know. Derek Wyatt is a fan of the Shattered

Glass idea. He thinks it's a very fresh concept.

Stop teasing me, god damn it. I know, but I'm

just saying, like, anything is possible. That's

why now, more than ever, you can never shut out

any idea. You can never laugh at someone and

say that idea is crazy because anything is possible

now. If someone would have told you two years

ago that the next BotCon set is going to be a

box set of Stuntacons with remolded heads and

menisaur and yada yada and, oh, by the way, it's

going to have side swipe and it's going to have...

People are going to look at you like you're on

crack. They're going to think you're crazy. You

know, but that's why anything is possible. If

I would have told someone five years ago we were

going to get Straxus and Thunderwing and, you

know, like characters that just, and Mindset,

oh my God, like people don't know it, but Mindset

is an extremely obscure UK character. And he

has a reveal -the -shield toy, imagine. You know?

You know, as far as the masterpiece stuff goes,

I wish that, like, for me, the next two, and

I know this probably will never happen. I've

said one of these before, I haven't said the

other one, but my next two wishes for Masterpiece

is a Masterpiece Soundwave with Masterpiece -sized

cassettes that actually fit into them. I know

that's probably never going to happen because

I know the Japanese really don't care about Soundwave

and I know cassette decks - They're not big fans.

You know what the problem with Soundwave is,

and I said this on another podcast, is that in

Japan, like in America, What we loved about Soundwave

was the synthesized voice of Frank Welker. In

Japan, a lot of the Decepticons had synthesized

voices. That's the problem, is that Soundwave's

voice was synthesized, Megatron somehow, but

also Megatron's voice was a little bit synthesized,

and so was Starscream's in everyone's. Everyone's

voice also had that gimmick to it. Granted, they

made Soundwave sound as radio as possible. The

gimmick didn't come across as strong because

Megatron's Frank Welker was Frank Welker. They

didn't really put much to it. Peter Cullen's

Optimus Prime is Peter Cullen. It isn't ran through

a filter to make it sound like a robot or to

give it some kind of mechanical sound to it.

A lot of the Autobots and Decepticons were like

that, they were just straight up the actors,

where the Decepticons, the Destrons in G1 in

Japan, they all had synthesizers to make them

sound robotic and evil, so Soundwave's gimmick

didn't come off as popular. You know, he still

is a big character, but he's not a huge popular

character in Japan, like he is in America. In

America, he's top tier, and even the most casual

Transformer fan remembers the Soundwave character.

But in Japan, he isn't as much, and that's why,

like, That's why it's it's so hard to get like

that Reissue, you know, because we had the reissue

of sound wave and we had a box and we always

get reissues of the g1 toy But it's like they're

not keen on giving to give the okay for that

classics toy I mean we got that war for Cybertron

one But that's more so because of the game and

I guess Hasbro was just pushing for it. Yeah,

but The other one that I wanted, that I would

like to see them do again, I don't think they'll

ever do this, but the other one I would love

to see, and they could include a train track

accessory, I think you know where I'm going with

this, I want to see a G1 masterpiece, purple

and black, Astro train. See, and that's, the

only problem I would have with that is just the

repaint potential. which is that the uh... i

mean they looked at colliery pain potential they

repainted the stupid thing in commemorative black

and white for the commemorative series yes i'm

aware of that and they did the same thing for

the uh... the head came classics released two

when they did it national trade but it's just

for them they have to save themselves okay we're

going to do astrotrain he's third low tier, he's

low tier, low tier, an unpopular, I wouldn't

say unpopular character, but not a popular character

is a lot that could be named. A triple changer,

which leads to a whole bunch of design thoughts

that have to go into, and then if we're gonna

do a repaint, it has to be a repaint that's justifiable

for sale, and to convince people to buy one and

or the other. You know what I mean? Let's say,

You know, yeah, here's Astro Train for $260 in

black, and here he is in purple. Which do you

take? And that being said, you bought one, would

you buy the other? It's very hard. Yeah, I know.

It's all about cost effectiveness. But again,

still, I would still love to see those, though.

There's a lot of stuff I'd love to see on a masterpiece

scale, because I'd just be so curious. Like,

I'd love to see a masterpiece Springer. how they

would tackle that to make it as much like the

show animation as possible, because the movie

robot mode animation design is gorgeous. I love

Springer's animation design with the mohawk and

everything. And even Warbot Defender, while it

tried, it didn't get it 100%. And I'd love to

see how they would tackle it, because they're

obsessed with the perfection of it. So I'm really

curious how they would go about it to make it

as close as humanly possible. Because there's

a lot of them. I'd love to see oh god masterpiece

Again, like I'm not a big fan of iron hide, but

I think that he really needs He needs an upgrade

he needs his ascension because like it's okay

that third like I know I don't know which third

party company did it but there was a third party

company that has a ratchet and The light up iron

hide. Yeah There's always accessory stuff for

it. It always comes off as stumpy. That's the

problem with those because of the legs. The thing

is too, when you look at Ironhide and his transformation

by Fleur O'Deary in the 86 and the 84 cartoon,

there is a possibility for that to happen. It

is realistic. It is possible. It's just that

you just got to get some Japanese guys together

and make it happen. Because they've made Megatron

happen, they've made Starscream happen, they've

made the Rotomus work. So I could see them making

the Ironhide work, it's a lot more simple. And

again, using previous toys as kind of this progression

of ideas, using Toe Line from Energon, which

was later used for Ironhide and BotCon, using

that as one example. then using the classics

toy and how they used ideas from that one for

that iron hide like they could use those engineering

ideas that they did in that progression to make

that iron hide toy and Exactly, that's that's

what I feel personally masterpiece should exist

for is It should be used to celebrate the extremely

popular characters and then on top of that go

back and revisit the characters that desperately

need animation model accuracy because there was

a lot of fleur -de -lis designs that were not

accurate. Right now, G1 Jazz didn't have doors

on his shoulders. A lot of people don't realize

that. He never had the doors present on his shoulders

at any time. To make a masterpiece toy that would

look exactly like the animation model would look

almost kind of boring. in my opinion, because

it wouldn't have the doors and would take away

from detail and everything. I mean, I think I

saw at BotCon, there was a guy who did an amazing

custom in BotCon 2010 of a, they took the Porsche

and they made a perfect like, almost like alternator

-esque jazz out of it. And it shows really that

it'd be very difficult to hide those doors. Where

you have the same transformation concept with

boost, streak, and prowl, and the doors are present.

So they're just wings. I personally think the

next masterpiece is going to be Galvatron. It's

just kind of like a no -brainer. I talked about

this on TFW's podcast. I also think that down

the line, I really see Star Saber and Victory

Leo being a reality of those two, more so because

the engineering already exists for it because

they've done the Lictorilio and Star Saber combiner

engineering and everything three times already

in the modern era. They did it with the Mega

PVC, they did it with the Robot Masters, and

the third time, while it's not directly related

to Star Saber, was when they did Masterpiece

Exkaiser, which was a Masterpiece toy for the

Brave Line, which is also done by Takara. uh...

they did a combiner with him to at the engineering

is there to show that even a masterpiece so i

could do a big -ass combiner so i could see that

being i wouldn't say it's not going to be like

as i don't say it's going to be n p o ten but

i could see it being like n p o thirteen fourteen

fifteen like yeah i could see being one of the

next few yeah uh... i was going to say uh...

you know yeah What do you think they're going

to use from Masterpiece, if they did do Masterpiece

Galvatron? Please tell me they're going to give

us a cannon and not a goddamn tank like Universe

did. Well, the first thing you have to realize,

all Masterpiece toys, they try to achieve the

animation model. None of them, even Starscreams,

that kind of deviated from the animation model,

it still tried its best to be as close to the

animation model as possible. They don't try to

do their own thing like Classics. There's a guy

named Gizai Toys. When Rodimus saw the first

images of his prototype for the Masterpiece one,

Gizai Toys was this guy. He's famous for the

third -party model kits of certain characters.

He did the Masterpiece wheelie model kit. which

is a really perfect edition wheelie. He did the

cyclonus before we had even classic cyclonus.

This guy, he does some amazing work. What he

does is a lot of times he computer -animated

mockups a lot of his ideas before he actually

makes them to get an idea of how the transformations

work. When we had the Rodimus out there, he did

a mockup showing, well, here's one possibility

of how Rodimus transforms, just looking at the

pictures. He literally hit it on the nail. He

figured out how the Rodimus mode works, how the

trailer works, he figured it all out and he did

CG models of this that are available online.

What he did just for fun, he showed how Galvatron

would work and he did it perfectly and it was

scary how well it worked. I'm gonna actually

look for it while we're talking. Yeah, going

back to Masterpiece Rodimus while you're looking

for that, you know, like I said, it's great if

you can afford like three or four of these so

you can have one in each mode for display purposes,

but I mean, the closest thing, if I ever got

one of the Masterpiece Rodimuses, I would either

leave him in Rodimus Prime Robot Mode with, you

know, the little trailer -based thing, or I would

leave him in Hot Rod Robot Mode. The trailer,

it surprised me, and I don't know how big the

Japanese are on rub signs. If they're not big

on them at all, that's fine. It surprised me

that the button to open his trailer did not have

a rub sign on it. Well, you know what's funny?

Because the trailer is, in a way, a slight improvement

over the original, but it's exactly the original

trailer. It is exactly, but it's like, here's

this button now, and when you push it, the trailer

automatically opens up slowly at the push of

a button, where the original, you had the crack

open half and half, and then you have the cannon

pulls up, the cannon pulls up in the original

the same way, clickety clickety, but now the

blast shields are molded on and they're on hinges,

so you don't have to clip them on, they're already

there, but it's 100 % like the original trailer.

Almost 100 % just with the slight little moderations

just to make it modern engineering, but it's

the exact same concept across the board and It's

just that I like I like that they included the

trailer because it's a nice little extra But

at the same time the other half of me is like

man that thing took a lot of space on that box

for one It doesn't really do much and considering

how I really like displaying Rodimus in the hot

rod mode The trailer just kind of just sits there

in the back with the with the cannon open and

everything And I sometimes part of me says it's

a waste of space like a part of me almost says

You know if we would have got just hot rod straight

up hot rod just turns into hot rod Give it a

little more extra accessories and we got it in

a smaller box and the price point would have

been different I would have been happy And if

you would have told me down the line. Oh, by

the way, we were going to put the trailer with

it and it never happened I wouldn't have been

mad and said, oh man, we really missed out. Because

you have to realize the trailer is not that iconic

with Rodimus. Do we remember any fiction where

it was important? No, not really. We're still

out on the debate if he merges with it when he

transforms, if he doesn't. We had some toys and

some animation models that showed that when he

transforms, the trailer merges with him. We've

had some toys and some animation models that

when he transforms, the trailer is separate.

from him, from the titanium to the G1. It's never

been something important, not to mention we've

never seen in fiction the original trailer used

as a weapon or being displayed or whatever. It's

always been transformed and then it goes to the

side and disappears. It's never been a big, big

issue, that trailer. For some people, it was

a waste. It was kind of like it's kind of like

if that thing wasn't there a lot of people would

have been able to buy it because it wouldn't

would have been as expensive and That's that's

another reason why I think that the Rodimus toy

is gonna be a lot cheaper Also when it comes

to America because when it doesn't have that

big trailer anymore He's pretty much. I wouldn't

say he's a glorified ultra class figure, but

he sees he would be something around that price

point Yeah, like I could see him being a forty

nine fifty nine dollar standalone figure. What

they'll do, they'll put them in robot mode, they'll

put them in that fancy masterpiece -esque, Predacon

-esque, whatever box that they used, that clear

hexagon, whatever bubble. They'll put them in

something like that in robot mode so it justifies

the size and the price point. And then they'll

charge like $49 .59. They'll throw in an extra

accessories with a lenticular card or whatever

they always do. They do something to make it

worth your while. And that'll be it. My only

real complaint about his accessories for the

Takara version, the blade, his buzzsaw blade,

is not so accurate as far as the colors. Well,

it's funny too because someone was saying also

how the blade is like when the blade's in motion.

This buzzsaw blade has been done in a few other

toys before. The first time it was ever shown

was there was a model kit from MC Axis back in

1992 that came with the buzzsaw blade. You had

to paint that one so that doesn't count. Then

the Mega PVC came with the buzzsaw blade. Again,

that one wasn't really painted accurate. And

then we had the classics toy that had the buzzsaw

blade. But it's funny, on the box, they called

it a data link communicator. And it was all black.

And you had to buy reprolabels to make it look

nice. And even the Henkei didn't bother to paint

it in. So the fact that we got what we got is

pretty cool. I mean, it's in motion. It's a disc.

It is a cool concept, but and one of the things

that really kind of upsets me about some of the

video reviewers that have done it And that's

fine. That's that's the way they did the video

and I you know it's a video I'm you know I'm

not like I'm not like you know oh my god It's

the end of the world type of thing, but a lot

of the videos that I've seen Put the blade in

his right hand and the first thing the public

might wait. That's not right. That's not show

accurate The assumption is It could be on either

hand. Right, yeah. But I mean, let's all face

it, in the movie, his left hand turned into a

buzzsaw. Yeah. He hucked off the squid's arm

pretty bad. Any final words on Masterpiece before

we go to a quick break? I think the only thing

that I'd just like to say is that... It was it

was a really good try. I don't see how they could

have done it any better I think the only thing

that could have been done better was if they

didn't try to do both characters, I think that

if and they even said in an interview with the

designer that Originally he was working on just

the Rodimus figure and then they told him He

was working on the hot rod figure and then they

told him Rodimus was gonna be a part of it too

and Luckily for him. That's one of those characters

that the difference between a hot rod and Rodimus

is a tweak here a tweak there You know, although

again, I would like when I think Rodimus Prime

I think the big buff masculine crazy -looking

ox design, you know, it almost looks like it

can't even transform It's so awesome looking

Where this, though, is 100 % what Hot Rod looks

like. Because to me, Hot Rod is the smaller,

thinner, young boy. And when he becomes Rodimus

Prime, he gets the aux design that's more defining

and anime -esque and buff and big. Like even

the spoiler is completely different in the aux

design. It has like antennas coming off of it

and stuff. That's a transformation. That's a

reformatting. That's a whole different Rodimus

and I feel that it would have been cool if they

would have done just a standalone Rodimus and

a standalone Hot Rod and see what would happen

there But you know I guess they wanted to kill

two birds with one stone and and and test water

with a gimmick That's never been done before

with the Rodimus character Which was to to have

him have the transformation within himself, right?

Yeah, I also sent you the link for the Galvatron

Okay, cool. So we'll check that out during the

break and you can give your opinions after yep

All right. We're gonna go to a quick break. You're

gonna hear a bunch of clips and we'll come back

with the outro So you guys are going to be able

to see these Jizz Eye Toys models from our posting

for this Toycast episode. That's pretty interesting,

actually. It is. It opens the mind and really

says what is capable. Especially that Galvatron.

Like I said earlier in this episode, I hope that

they... If Takara ever did a masterpiece Galvatron,

I would hope that they would use the cannon and

not the freaking tank. I hate the damn tank.

The tank has always been Hasbro's answer to...

It's always been Hasbro and Takara's answer to

number one, deal with safety laws and number

two, to deal with engineering problems because

a tank gives you a lot more to work with. where

a gun, there's a lot less to work with. Back

in G2, they were trying to slowly push Megatron

into a tank and then maybe keep that as his iconic

image forever. We had G2 Megatron, the Hero Megatron,

and then we would have Megatron as a tank across

the board from the Unicron trilogies and other

things like that. They wanted to keep him in

that... concept, or even make them a jet, make

them anything but a gun. Anything but a gun because

a gun was limiting and difficult. I think the

closest thing to a gun we've gotten since G1,

as far as animation models, is the helicopter

jet plane version that Animated has done. Well,

if you're talking about closest to the G1 design,

I mean, as far as just the sleekness of the Megatron

in Transformers animated, the sleekness of that

helicopter jet mode and the fact that the gun

is mounted under his cockpit. Well, the design

of animated Megatron is a mild homage also to

Super Megatron from Operation Combination. It's

kind of a mix of different designs and stuff

with the swords and everything too. I think the

last time we had anything that was close to a

legitimate gun, and this is why he came in such

ugly colors, was actually Armada Laserbeak. That's

why Armada Laserbeak, if you actually look in

the instructions, not the instructions in the

catalog, he came in something that looked very

similar to his G1 colors, and then when they

found out that it had a gun mode, right away,

bang, day glow orange, all over that toy. Like,

if they did a masterpiece Galvatron cannon based

on the 86 animation model, it's a cannon. It's

not a pistol. And, you know, Galvatron had that

design of the giant orange. Yeah, well, that's

it. You wouldn't have to worry about an orange

tip because the whole thing would be orange anyways.

Exactly. It'll happen. I guarantee it's definitely

in the top five because you can't do a Rodimus

Convoy without a Galvatron. You can't. I'm pretty

sure if the Mega PVC line kept going, they would

have gotten around to a PVC Galvatron. I'm pretty

sure if the Chrono Q line kept going, they would

have probably did a Galvatron. I don't know how

that would have worked because it doesn't roll.

Usually, the line kind of dies down after they

get into that, because they do Optimus, they

do Megatron, and whatever momentum is left, they'll

put into the later characters, and so they do

Rotomus and usually dies around there, so they

never get around to Galvatron. Galvatron was,

again, you have to realize, we see Transformers

from our perspective, not from Japan's perspective.

What do we know of Galvatron? We saw the 86 movie

back in 1986, then we saw Season 3, and when

we look at Season 3 Galvatron we go, ugh, you

know? That was crazy Galvatron. See, I like,

I like crazy Galvatron though. Yeah, but you

know what adds to it? It's because it's Frank

Welker. Exactly. We love that voice. We make

that whole association with that. He's crazy.

We know what came before. We knew what came before

in terms of Leonard Nimoy and everything and

why he's like that. Now wash that all away. Now

here's Japan. We have season two. Imagine you've

seen season two, right? That's what you know

of Transformers. Right up to the last episode,

but... Okay, and then bang here's season three.

Here's the new leader and now here's this guy

Galvatron freaking crazy Okay, yeah, because

they didn't get the movie right away. Yeah, right

at the movie until 1991 So, Galvatron has a completely

different aftertaste in the mouth of a lot of

the Japanese. He was just this crazy leader who,

again, and it's not Frank Welker, it's random

dude who, well, not random dude, but dude hired

by the Japanese to go, Kono yaro, and just randomly

shoot things. So, it's a completely different

effect for them and how they experience it. So,

that's why it's not as a big deal for them. That's

why it doesn't come across as important to them,

Galvatron. Don't they realize the customer and

the fan is always right in most cases, not in

all cases? The customer and the fan in this case

is the Japanese customers. Kenji Infune, the

creator of Mega Man, said it the best. is made

for the Japanese market, and then anything else

is an afterthought. When a video game is made,

it's made for Japan first, and then when it's

brought to America, that's an afterthought. And

a lot of the engineering, although Hasbro has

been a lot more involved in the recent years,

but a lot of the engineering is thought for Japan

first, and then it goes into play afterwards.

That's why now we're starting to get Thunderwings

and Straxuses and Bludgens, stuff that only America

would make the the association with because of

the comics and everything, not Japan. But back

in the day, we got stuff like Wing Saber and

Energon. Wing Saber was a straight -up Star Saber

homage. We would get stuff like... Well, now

we're getting like Black Shadow, which is a really

obscure... Transformers victory homage, but things

are different now. Things are very obscure and

weird, but back then, what did they know? They

didn't know much, and Galvatron, he just didn't

come across as something really super important.

You have to realize, Galvatron, for the longest

time, people didn't even know what his origin

was in Japan. They weren't too sure. Was he a

separate character? Was he Megatron? TV magazine

said one thing, and then some TV magazine picture

said another thing. He was always advertised

as the rival of Ultra Magnus because they were

both city commanders. Was he really Rodimus'

rival? Who was Rodimus' rival? There was a whole

big deal with that. Again, I could see Galvatron

being one of the next... He could be the next

masterpiece. He could be one of the top five.

I do see it happening though, but it's just...

The Japanese, they're not as keen on him, but

he's one of those important characters that have

to be established because for him to not get

a masterpiece, but yet for like Astro Train or

Six Shot or something, I can't see that happening.

Yeah. I mean, Astro Train is possible regardless

of the... you know, regardless of the limited

repair potential, but six shot, there's no way

they would attempt six shot. Anything's possible.

Anything is possible. It's just if they want

it enough. And the thing is, is that, you know,

Masterpiece Toys... They're made for the heavy

hitter characters, for the characters that are

super important that they would take the time

and effort to do this kind of engineering. And

yes, Thundercracker and Skyward Barn are heavy

hitter characters, but they're associated with

that Starscream. So that's why those happen.

Same thing with Ultra Magnus. They would never

try to engineer an Ultra Magnus armor. It's just

a healthy coincidence that Prime is a white Magnus

and yada yada or whatever. What's next possibly

Galvatron, but all I always say is take a step

back and think to yourself You know, what was

a heavy hitter character? Think of like the top

-tier characters and you know, I say to myself

Okay, shockwave. He's he's he's in that top tier.

But here's the problem shockwaves g1 toy is Pretty

damn there. Yeah, I mean like it's I mean in

all honesty Short of maybe giving him a little

more articulation. How could you even improve

on that? Yeah, you know what I mean? And so say

you know sound wave. Yes Maybe you could change

the proportions a bit, but he's already there

The only reason the only reason why I'm sorry

to cut off the only reason why ever I would ever

want a masterpiece sound wave Is just have the

bigger cassettes. I want masterpiece cassettes

because let's be honest the g1 cassettes while

they are awesome for what they are as far as

like play value or even even this yeah i know

you it would be crazy because i would love it

that they would do cassettes that are actually

the size of actual cassettes like real cassettes

because while soundwave himself was kind of this

especially in daikon he was supposed to be a

micro cassette player based on real micro cassettes

in the show he was always bill even though he

was a micro cassette player the toy and the toy

was supposed to be emulating a micro cassette

player. In the show, he was always emulating

an actual cassette player. Right. And so it would

be crazy to get stuff that's the size of actual

tape cassettes that transform. But then the only

thing that just would bother me in the back of

my head is them going, ugh, we're going to have

to convince people of this old technology of

these cassettes. But that's always sounded my

biggest stigmata is that it's like, ugh, remember

tape cassettes? Remember tape? Even when they

did Classics Ravage or Universe 2 .0 Ravage with

Hound, his tape mode. was called transport mode.

Yeah. They didn't even want to call it cassette

mode. Well, that's because with all this changing

technologies and iPods and iPads and all this

and all that, no one remembers cassette decks

or cassettes or record players or Betamax or

any of that. I mean, for me personally, I remember

all that stuff, but at the same time, I love

all the new stuff as well. But if you're going

to do a Masterpiece Soundwave, you have to do

a callback to the original cassette player. Like

I said, I don't see a Masterpiece toy ever deviating

from the original animation model. That is what

Masterpiece exists for. Classics exist to deviate

from the animation model. If they want to do

a Soundwave toy that's a modernization, an update

but completely different from the animation model

that Fleur -O -Derry did back in 1984, that is

fine. Like, I would love to see, and I mean,

I know several people have done customs of this,

but I would love to see Hasbro repaint War for

Cybertron Soundwave in black and white. Black

for Sound Blaster and white for... Oh, yeah,

you want to get the, like, the iPod and the...

Well, no, I... Sound Blaster? Not well sound

blaster. Yeah for the black and what was the

white one? What was the well? It's called. It's

called. It's called white noise sound wave which

was okay odd edition Okay, and then what because

then they did the other colors They did the purple

one which is called sound blaster and then spark

blue sound wave Yeah, but but I mean I could

see them repainting that that war for Cybertron

sound wave There's potential for that too, but

I think we've confirmed that the United Line

is pretty much done after this point. They're

ports of the classics -esque stuff. We'll see

what the future holds. That's the thing. I always

tell people this. The movie influences everything

in the big scheme of things. How successful Dark

of the Moon will be on marketing and on a monetary

scale, Just the movie itself and the toys will

determine the future of What they do next? Yeah,

you know because and especially the way that

dark in the moons looking right now with you

know Because the toys look there's you have to

realize they've almost phased out the concept

of basic deluxes You know what I mean? Yeah,

like they're putting a focus more on scouts and

legends Smaller price points. I guess it's because

after the recession they want to they want to

play it safe Also because, and this is just a

problem with movies in general, when has the

third movie really been the really good one?

Well, supposedly, in this case, it will be. Yeah,

we hope so. We hope so, yeah. Because X -Men

3, Spider -Man 3, Matrix 3. I could go on and

on, but the point being is that you know what

I mean. So we could hope that this will be the

one that will blow them all away. But in past

experiences of other movies, It hasn't been the

case. I'm not saying like Rocky III. Rocky III

was awesome, but there was three other movies

after that. I'm saying like in terms of trilogies.

The third ones usually weren't that great. So

for those of you out there who may have not,

like me, have not picked up Masterpiece Rodimus

yet, wait until the Toys R Us version. I believe

he is supposed to be a Toys R Us exclusive, isn't

he? The rumor is that he will be a Toys R Us

exclusive. He'll come in a special box. because

the Grimlock was the same story, which is kind

of sad because I know I never saw the Grimlock

here in Canada, but I know that also in America

he was kind of difficult to get. So that's kind

of a sad story because he's going to probably

be one of those things that are scalped like

crazy. But the point is he'll still be cheaper

than... What he is right now. Yeah $200. No,

thank you. It's not like that It's a huge box

for for for a trailer that takes up 50 % of it.

So basically you're basically you're paying like

$75 for the actual figure and you're paying the

other percentage for the box. Well, it's it's

it's big. It's really big. Yeah, like it's Yeah,

I've seen it. It's it's huge. Yeah, it really

is so it's just Don't worry about it. I always

tell people just be patient and wait. I know

definitely by BotCon 2011 coming up, it's almost

four months now. It's really close. Are you going

this year? Oh yeah, of course. I'm going to be

there. Anyone that's going to Pasadena, you'll

see Proto Man there. So we'll party. But I get

a feeling they'll definitely probably reveal.

their version of it at the, at BotCon. Because

we've seen a lot of the Dark of the Moon stuff

already at Toy Fair. So, I mean, what are they

going to show us that's going to be the new big

reveals? So I kind of see that being as one of

it. Maybe the wave three and four Dark of the

Moon toys. And I think more Prime stuff. Oh yeah,

yeah. For anyone who's been watching that amazing

show. It's a great show. Yeah, it is. So far

it is, yeah. uh... couple of quick announcements

as far as toy cas goes before i go to the outro

uh... toy cast has had several changes for those

of you who either just joining us are for those

of you are a long time listeners you'll know

that it originally started as transformers toy

cast and it was specifically geared towards transformers

and after the twenty five i just made it toy

cast or it's all aspects of action figures and

toys and all that stuff And as of episode, I

think it was episode 77? Yeah, I think it was

as of episode 77 I started doing these topic

shows like episode 77 was Star Wars because Star

Wars came out in 1977. and all that uh... those

topic shows will continue however they will be

monthly on the first of every month was when

they will be released uh... because i've got

so much other stuff going on the caster network

with other shows uh... it's not that i don't

want to request a fall by the wayside but i wanted

to continue on that at a more leisurely pace

at the same time we're also going to pick up

the pace where we're going to do either weekly

or bi -weekly 30 minute to one hour news segments

where we have either myself and Michael Wilson,

myself and Spada or Octobotimus or any of the

other people that have been on Toycast in previous

episodes will comment on all aspects of toy news.

These news episodes, like I said, will be 30

minutes to an hour, no more than that. I'd like

to keep it right at 45 minutes just to get the

toy news covered. Because I know Steve Megatron

over at All Things Transformers, he's not really

that into the toys, but I still think the toy

news needs to get covered. So we'll have either

weekly or bi -weekly toy news episodes and monthly

topic shows. So that's the future of Toycast

so far. They were joining us here on toy casters

always get in contact with us to leave feedback

for the show visit the website D cast radio .com

you can comment on each episode post Leave the

shows feedback in iTunes. Please do this. I checked

the other day We still haven't gotten any new

iTunes reviews, but I understand why because

the releases have been kind of sporadic Follow

us on Twitter the sharing there is TF toy cast

mine is TF doing like what is your Twitter sir?

You so need to change that to the GDproto, man.

All you've got to do is go into your settings,

type in whatever new Twitter name you want in

your settings, and if it says it's available,

you can change it immediately. You'll still have

all your followers. You just have to let them

know that, hey, this is my new Twitter name.

Oh, I'll think about it. I'll think about it.

Be co -affed on Facebook. Go to Facebook .com

slash GeekCast Radio Network. Call the voicemail

line. Tell us to show you living the message

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

enjoyed this episode of Toycast. I wish you'll

join us next time for one of the news episodes

and the monthly topic show for April since I'm

so busy in March with the Geekcast Radio Network

Top 100 animated series of all time. We're not

going to have a March topic show. But I will

be getting together with Kevin Optimus, Solo

Thompson, and Octobotimus for Mask, Thundercats,

and Silverhawks, which will be the April topic

show for Toycast. For now, I am TFG1 Mike with

the Goddamn Protoman. Thank you for listening.

Until next time. You're no good, Autobot. It

cannot be opened. Not by a Decepticon. Like it

or not, we're allies now, against a common foe.

Destroy him, Galvatron, now, or you yourself

shall be obliterated. Of course, my master. Come

out Autobot! We all must die sometime! Have a

sense of satisfaction now. You got the touch!

You got the touch! Arise, Rodimus Prime. Avatron?