Transformers Toy Collecting and News Discussion

Hey, it's Jack here, and I'm listening to the

Geekcast Radio Network. This is Optimus Prime,

and you're listening to all things Transformers.

Hello, and welcome to... All Things Transformers,

I'm your host, Steve Megatron, and joining me

on this adventure into the Transformers fandom

is TFG1 Mike. Lordy, lordy, we've reached 440.

We got 60 to go to 500, folks. Can we get to

500 episodes before the end of 2023? You don't

know, because we don't know. We don't know. We

don't know, but we are here to talk about Transformers.

And what have you been doing with your Transformers

lately? I repainted Starscream, like Core Class.

So that's been nice. I gave it more of a polished

look. Cool. A lot more gloss. Added red to the

sides. Added a little bit more detailing. I redid

that ugly yellow that they had for the cockpit

and turned it to the bronze. Yeah, so I just

I mostly touched up a bunch of areas on it. But

that's the first time I've messed with one of

my paintings in quite some time. Nice. Very cool.

Very cool. Yeah, I have sort of kind of been

getting back into Transformers collecting that

are not Funko Pops. And I don't know why. Why

would you do that? I did. I just said, I don't

know why. There's too much, like, I'm only grabbing

it because it's an easier example, and it's the

only, it's the closest Transformers Funko Pop

I have, but you take any of the Funko Pops, obviously,

their PVC figures, their statues, their heads

turn, that's about the only articulation, but

I have, oh, this is funny. I have 10 and a half

inch Unicron here, which is based off the HasLab

design. And because the actual Transformers toy

I'm going to be talking about is a Herald of

Unicron. So that's why I said this is going to

be funny because I didn't even really realize.

I'm like, oh, wait, crap, right. And this shall

be your ship. Now, obviously, I can't do the

voice. But, I mean, I just, I don't know. Before

I went to Funko Pops, I was still out of the,

like, I got out of toy collecting back in 2011.

And obviously from 2011 until 2017, late 2016,

early 2017, when I started collecting the Pops,

it was like, I still enjoy toys. I still like

looking at toys. I have zero desire to have any

of them. And when the pops came out, I was like,

oh, this is nice. This is easy. You can either

leave them in the box or you can take them out

of the box or you can do whatever with them and

you don't really. Like I've said before on this

show and other shows, I'm at a point in my life

where I just want the character. I don't care

if it transforms. I don't care if it does something.

I don't care if it talks in my sleep. Yes, I

phrased that correctly. If it talks in my sleep,

because sometimes I don't know. Things are weird.

So from 2017 until now, or until late 2021 when

Karen passed, it was like, oh, I'm perfectly

fine with Funko. Now that she's gone, it's like,

oh, I'm going to get everything that I've looked

at or I've wanted since blah, blah, blah, blah,

blah. And the toy that I will be talking about

tonight is something that it's the only Galvatron

that I wanted because it's the only one that

really... You know how I am. Oh yeah. I love,

I love the kingdom Galvatron. I think it's great.

I think it's awesome. I love that. We finally

have a fully G one movie, accurate Galvatron.

Great. And then they had to like, and obviously

they've, they've done that mold like four or

five times over. We've got the toy accurate colors.

We've got the movie accurate colors. We've got,

I think a, Fourth one, and then this third one

is the transition phase, is the Behold Galvatron

Unicron Pack. And I'm just like, okay, fine.

I've had this thing saved in my eBay wish list

for at least four years, and I finally pulled

the trigger on it, and I finally got it, and

it's great. It's awesome. This is something we'll

talk about in a little bit, folks, but this figure

along with the Rodimus Prime, Kingdom Rodimus

that I was gifted by my buddy Alex, both come

in the no -window package, fully closed box and

all the ties and all the twists. So I'm getting

Galvatron out. I'm cutting the ties off. I'm

doing this. I'm doing that. The thing comes in

robot mode. Thank God. I love his cannon mode.

I do. I absolutely love Galvatron's cannon mode,

but thank God I don't have to transform this

thing. If I really wanted to, I could move his

cannon on various parts of his arms because that's

one of the greatest things about the modern Transformers

is there's ports everywhere on figures and things

and whatever. And the other thing why I love

this thing so much, and it's so lame and so stupid,

and I don't care, it has... The Matrix necklace

is all purple, just like him. Oh, man. Yeah,

I love this thing. Now, ask me why I don't like

this thing. Why don't you like it? Because there's...

So, as I'm taking it out of the package... Bits

and pieces of him are trying to transform without

me trying to transform them, or the legs don't

stand in the right way, or his little side skirts

will move. I'm like, oh, God, I'm so not used

to actual action figures. Like, mine just come

in a box. Like, the only action the Funko Pops

have is if some of them, like with the Marvel

and the Star Wars license, they have to be bobblehead.

Most of the other ones, any other lines other

than Marvel and Star Wars are not bobbleheads.

They're just straight head on neck, head on peg,

whatever, and it turns. But, like, I go to pick

this thing up or I go to move it or I go to whatever,

and if my finger, like, literally right now,

just as I'm trying to pick this thing up, the

whole back section where the turret comes up

to his neck, it's part of the gun or whatever.

Whoops. I almost just knocked the Matrix out.

See, I can't do it. I'm too dyslexic, literally

not kidding folks, to be doing actual action

figures. But I love this thing. I'm going to

eventually put it on a shelf and never touch

it again. If I can get this Matrix on his stupid

fucking head. God damn it. Yeah, I had that problem

with him too, I believe. Yeah. But I also got

rid of the Matrix. Yeah, you're not a Matrix

person. Well, I got rid of the Matrix, and I

got rid of the Galvatron head, and I put a Megatron

head on it. Yeah, well, because you're trying

to customize your thing, so. Yeah. What I do

like, though, is I have him perfectly posed,

really, for the point of. where he just shoots

his gun up in the air because it's attached to

his arm. But other than that, no, I love looking

at... Oh, God, he's so... This is what I don't

like. Like, you have to get the waist just right,

you have to get the legs just right, you have

to get the thing just right to make sure it's

going to stand without falling over. Thank you,

Ray. If you fall over, I'm going to throw you

in the trash. But, no, I love looking at this

thing. I think it's absolutely hilariously, awesomely

cool, and it's so fun. And literally, I did not

even, like, I was just using Unicron as an example

of the fact that the Pops don't do anything.

And then I looked at Galvatron, I looked at Unicron,

I'm like, all right. Oh, boy. So, yeah, there

was breaking news recently that Hasbro is reversing

their – I'm not even – like, I saw – I don't

even have my phone. My phone's on the charger.

It was dead earlier. So I saw somebody on Instagram

post breaking news about Hasbro reversing their

packaging back to – Oh, yeah. Yep. Yeah, yeah.

They decided to go back to the old school. Mm

-hmm. packaging which is kind of funny but it's

also because fanboys want to be able to see the

product exactly and not have the head stolen

look i had a couple of the closed box uh the

the not clyde not closed box i'm gonna I'm going

to get canceled if I say the wrong thing. The

book box ones from back in 05, 06, 07, whenever

they were doing the book box commemorative series.

At least with that, it was technically a closed

box with a window. Once you opened it, you could

see the figure. This whole completely closed

box packaging or windowless packaging. Windowless

packaging is the stupidest thing in the world.

They're both pretty bad. Yeah. But, like, so,

again, I think I mentioned this last episode.

I got the Core Class Sound Blaster because I

like the black and purple. And I have pictures

of me taking it out of, like, I have pictures

of it in the package. I have pictures of, you

know, it being opened out of the package before

I release it from its plastic ties. And, fine,

if you want to use plastic ties, fine, whatever.

But don't, dude. Windowless packaging where heads

can be stolen. That's ridiculous. Yeah, I've

seen quite a few of those instances. Yeah. And

I know we've talked about this before, but I

mean, it's big news that Hasbro is reversing

this. It's not surprising, though. No, not at

all. It's about damn time. What what took them

so long? Yeah. And. Yeah, there. They're like,

based on your feedback, we will be reintroducing

windows and blisters to our six inch fan figures

beginning later this year. Which includes, you

know, all of their regular action figures. This

one does not specifically mention Transformers,

however. These are the new new windows and blisters

made for. There's Star Wars, Marvel, G .I. Joe,

Power Rangers. If they're going to do it for

those brands, they should be doing it for Transformers.

You would think so. Time will tell. But, yeah,

it says that they'll be made from bio or recycled

PET. Yeah. Whatever that is. I don't... They're

going to recycle pets. Glad it wasn't me that

said it. They're going to have PETA come after

them. Anyways. Yeah. So... I... I mean, I think

it's good. But I think that they definitely need

to do this anyway. Regardless. Absolutely. A

hundred percent. Yeah. I, other than was it a

new rise of the beast trailer or was there a

new TV spot? I honestly, I don't know. I'm so

far out of the news actually. Like I haven't

been paying attention to it because there hasn't

been, Oh, the last thing I paid attention to

was the most recent Hasbro fan stream. whatever

the heck, and aren't they having another one

like next week or something? I know they just

had the Power Rangers 30th anniversary one. Yeah,

I'm not exactly sure, to be honest. I've never

heard of this before, but I've now gone to the

main page of TFW 2005, but Hasbro to showcase

future Transformers content at Licensing for

Retail Day. I know we have to have a day for

everything, but do we have to have a day for

licensing for retail? And basically what this,

ooh, this is actually kind of cool, actually.

Highlighted content. They received word that

Hasbro is ready to showcase its future portfolio

this year. Licensing for retail day. Highlighted

content. Transformers 40th anniversary celebration

content for 2024. That's all that matters to

us because nobody cares what kind of Dungeons

or Dragons Peppa Pig is slaying. How is Peppa

Pig a 20th anniversary? That makes no sense.

Obviously Dungeons and Dragons 50th anniversary.

It's a thing. It's a thing. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Obviously, or in addition to the above, Hasbro

will showcase content from future movies, which

are slated to release in 2024 and 2025. So, okay.

Well, they're supposed to have a new animated

Transformers film. Yeah. To what degree, I have

no clue. But, yeah. Well, ladies and gentlemen,

I just put a doomsday clock on myself. The Licensing

for Retail Day will happen April 19th, 2023 at

the Conveen, London. Attendees can purchase tickets

via blah, blah, blah. So this episode is going

to be going out before the 19th. How is it we

always do these recordings before big news comes

out? Well, we can do another episode next week.

It's not a big deal. Yep. Like I said, it's a

thing. Yeah, it's just the way we wait so long

because there is news that we want to hear about.

And then we see as we're recording a semi news

episode, because this really wasn't supposed

to be a news episode. But I talked about all

the stuff I want to talk about with Galvatron

and Unicron and all that stuff. So. So, yeah.

All right. Licensing for retail day. Yay. Yes.

But there's also. The Rise of the Beast figures

are coming out. There's supposed to be kiosks

in some places. I haven't yet seen one, but I

haven't been in the store in a week. Yeah, I

was in Walmart about a week ago or so. I didn't

see anything. No, when was I at Walmart? I don't

know. As of this recording, Monday night, this

past weekend, I was at Walmart on the Saturday.

The 15th of April is when I was at Walmart, and

I did not see any. Of course, I was kind of zooming

through, making sure I didn't miss anything.

But I wasn't really paying that much attention

to it. iTunes has Beast Wars Complete Series

available for digital purchase. Nice. I still

have the DVDs from Shell Factory. Yep. Which

are awesome. Yes, they are. And, yeah, so they

sell Season 1, which is Volume 1, for $24 .99.

Season 2 and 3 is Volume 2 for $24 .99. And they're

offered in HD with closed captioning. Cool. Unless

you go to the guy that 4K upgraded it. And you

have better options. Yeah. And how hungry are

you for Transformers cake? Oh, no. TFW posted

a life -size Transformers Camaro Bumblebee cake

at the International Cake Show in Australia.

That's right. I remember hearing about this.

It's completely editable with sound, lights,

and moving chassis. It's made of 150 kilograms

of fondant and a chocolate mud cake. Yeah. The

things I've read about it, though, is people

said that while it's mind -blowing that it's

made, there's actually a woman that can do it

better. Oh, of course. There's plenty of people

that can do it better. And it looks more realistic

than what this guy did, but no offense. Either

way, I can't bake a cake like that. Kudos to

him. Yeah, absolutely. But yeah. Yeah. And you

would think with Beast Wars being added to iTunes

that it would be added to most purchasable streaming

services. I just looked it up on Vudu. Nope,

not there. So maybe it's an iTunes exclusive

for now. I don't know. I mean, I don't need to

– I can just watch it on Tubi and it's fine.

Because if you watch enough Tubi, folks, even

though it's free, if you watch enough of it,

the ads kind of stop. I'm watching Tubi on my

phone or on my TV, and yes, there are ads. But

if I watch nine hours of Tubi, they're going

to stop showing me ads, which is great. So another

really cool thing – this is a rumor, but more

than likely it will come true. Legacy Universe

figures for 2024. They're saying there's going

to be a Core Class Beast Machines Cheetor and

Beast Wars Dinobot. Wow, that's cool. Core Class.

Oh, wow. So I'm interested to see how well these

turn out. Because I'm not going to lie, if they

had a Beast Wars Megatron, of any of his forms

to be honest i i would love to see them try and

tackle the alligator body again yeah it would

be cool with an updated aesthetic because i mean

yeah it would just be nice i i've i've thought

about that one because i'm like well i have almost

all the mechatrons from beat force except for

the gator but it it just can't justify 25 for

A core class figure. Well, it's a basic class,

so it's actually bigger than a core class. Oh,

okay. Well, basic. It's the same size as Beast

Wars Iguanas because it's the same figure, just

a different head sculpt and a different beast

head. Yep. Very, very interesting. But either

way, I would be happy to see it happen. Yeah.

And that news comes from JTPrime17, who gets

the info from Target's computer. Very cool, very

cool. I would be happy to see Beast Machines

making a Legacy debut and probably getting a

proper Beast Machines cast. Mm -hmm. Dragon Megatron.

Yep. Turns to the Cloak. Mm hmm. Make him ultra

class. I was going to say, if that's not commander

class or Titan class or whatever, I wouldn't

go Titan class with it because it's not the it's

not the ship. If they're going to if they were

going to do like the size of the arc. Yeah. And

do Titan class. That would make sense. That was.

Yeah. Because they did have one. They did have

one in the plans back in the 90s. And it just

never came to fruition because of cost. And Beast

Machines was like pretty much done. That was

the other big news that I saw. The Nemesis. She

is coming. Yeah, that was the other. So what

do you think about them making it a female sort

of trypticon? Wait, what? Because normally the

Nemesis turns into a trypticon. What? Yeah. No,

no, no, no. Nemesis the ship never turned into

Trypticon. The ship never was, no, Trypticon

was completely separate. It did in the War for

Cybertron games. Okay, yes, in the games it did,

yes. I'm saying, like, you look at the Ark, the

Ark is the Ark, except he has a robot mode, and

that's fine. If the Ark's a guy and the Nemesis

is a girl, it's just one more way for Battle

of the Sexes to happen, good versus evil. Read

into that what you want. But I don't really care.

If I was to get either the Ark or the Nemesis,

the new ones, I would most likely keep them in

ship mode for the rest of the bots and cons and

peoples. I like that they're doing the Nemesis.

I think that's awesome. I think that's cool.

That's great. That's interesting. Yeah, I kind

of like the figure, but at the same time, the

only way it would pull me is if the Axalon or

the PredBase were a thing. But even then, it's

not something I could afford. no i mean this

is again this is that titan class this is the

big i can't even find the story now i remember

seeing it because i mean they had uh they had

the armada crew yeah you know like prime and

in megatron and yeah no i was very oh there it

is i see it now it's lumped in with uh All the

new toy release info? Yes. I don't know. I'm

pretty happy about the Dinobots. My kids want

that. The core class ones? Yep. They want all

of them. Yeah, absolutely. Those are cool. I

want, out of this release, Depcon. Oh yeah, that

would be cool. I like what he transforms to.

I like his robot mode. And he just looks cool.

yeah now i did not watch the hasbro stream i

probably should have but i'm looking through

i don't but that's more so just because i don't

care right but like i will say and i will i've

said before and i'll say it again i like hearing

from ben from marketing or evan the designer

or mark the designer i like b i like that we

have the option to either we watch it as it's

you know live or whatever else or we go back

and watch it i like having the option to actually

be able to hear from oh yeah people that are

working on these things i i do like to hear that

on occasion yeah but uh at the same time, I don't

necessarily always watch it. No. Yeah. I mean,

again, if it's specifically to something I want,

like I'm just going to call them Jen. I know

they're not general, but all of the, like all

the legacy character, like the, the jazz vacuum

Cybertronian mode or the bumblebee Cybertron,

like all the stuff that we're interested in,

like, you know, whatever, like. for me like i

want to hear evan or mark or somebody talk about

beast wars kingdom megatron i want to hear their

thought as the people that are working on it

i want to hear that process now i'm not saying

most of the time i've watched it all live i've

usually gone back and tried to you know actually

i usually wait until the next day for whenever

we end up recording so i'm looking at the pictures

of the nemesis the screen caps from the stream

It does say that the one that they're showing

in the stream, the product is not final because

there's a bunch of blue and whatever else. And

obviously the Nemesis in G1 was not blue, it

was purple. And they did say, I remember seeing

that part of the stream, that all of the blue

bits will be purple and whatever else. And it

looks really, just the alt mode itself, the ship

mode looks so great. The robot mode looks interesting.

I think it looks really cool. I like how the

face actually, the face itself, opens up to reveal

her face, but it also closes up to basically

make it be the Decepticon symbol as a face. So

it's kind of like she's a relative of Tarn, sort

of. But I dig it. I dig the ship mode. I dig

silly. The only thing I think, and I don't know

if this actually happened in the stream just

from seeing these screen grabs, they have the

arc. It's standing right next to Ben as he's,

you know, seeing, I forget what the other guy's

name is. I don't think that's Evan. Is it Mark?

Did Mark go beard? I don't know. Anyway, there's

one shot of him where he's holding it like a

gun. That's a little silly, but okay. But I wish

we could have seen, and maybe we, I'm sure they

will do this when they get the final production

done for Nemesis. I want to see the two ship

modes side by side. We did not see this here.

As far as I'm, like I said, I'm scrolling through

all these images, and I'm not going to, you know,

cut through to try to find the stream to find

it, but I'm pretty sure TFW has taken, like,

they have, like, angles of this thing from every

angle. Not once did they transform the Ark into

its ship. So I'm very, very, very excited to

see the Ark and the Nemesis ships side by side.

It's definitely a completionist thing for G1

fans, which is very cool. Yeah, absolutely. Very

cool, very cool. Anything else we want to talk

about? Anything else we want to bring up? I like...

The Masterpiece Megatron. I know I've kind of

briefly talked about him before, but... Yeah.

Yeah. I really like the figure. You're talking

about the one you've got, right? Yes. Okay, so

you're talking... Yeah. Yeah. It just needs a

battery. What kind of battery does it take? I'm

not sure. I'd have to open him up. He takes the

same as Masterpiece Primal, though. OK, so I

don't know. It's like a little tiny battery.

Oh, it's like one of those nine volt ones or

it's one of the weird ones. It's like the little

watch battery type thing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's

one of the weird ones. Yeah, yeah. So. Yeah,

so I'm hoping that I can eventually make time

to get my hands on it just so I can see the lights

in the face and the. sound effects because he

talks. And Masterpiece Optimus Primal apparently

lights up too. And I was totally oblivious to

that. Wow. You've had that thing for how long?

2016. And I just figured it out. You've had that

thing for six years and Wow, dude. Wow. Or seven

years, I should say. But yeah, interesting. I

am just running early. I'm looking at the in

-hand images of Primal, the possible first look

that they posted, and I'm like, oh, that's cool.

Yeah, so that's very, very cool. Yeah, Masterpiece

Megatron. Gotta love it. Uh -huh. He's spectacular.

So I have Masterpiece Megatron. I have Masterpiece

Transmetal Megatron. And, yeah. Definitely two

of my crowning achievement favorites. Absolutely.

Absolutely. Very cool. Very cool. Yep. And then

I have all the masterpiece primals. Hmm. So wait,

how many are there? Well, it's the, the beast,

the regular beast, the transmittal. Oh, okay.

And then the optimal, the optimal. All right.

Yeah. I don't have like the variations. Like

I don't do the, yeah. Those weird people that

has to have everything. I mean, if you're into

that, great, but. Says the guy that needs multiple

Megatrons. I got to have one of the paint jobs.

And I don't need, like, for instance, the Takara

and the Hasbro version. I have the third -party

masterpiece. You know, the more I think about

the cloak, the more I say that it does have to

be. Seeing, again, seeing the last Autobot, the

Ark there in the pictures with the Nemesis, if

you're going to get, like, just having the cloak

itself, it needs to be bigger than a Commander

Class, I think. Because Commander Class Rodimus

is big. Galvatron is big. That cloak and that

whole thing just seems like it needs to be just,

like, three inches bigger. I don't mean three

inches taller. I mean like overall 360 around

and up and down and inside and out and whatever

else. It just seems like it should be bigger

than the two toys I can see right now. And I'm

just like, I know they were downsizing, but that

cloak Megatron seems a lot. Every time I saw

cloak, every time I see cloak Megatron and beast

machines, he looks bigger than primal is. Well,

he's always been bigger than primal except for.

When he became optimal. Optimal, yep. And then

he became jealous and had to become a dragon.

Yep, well, you know. Some people just want to

burn the world down. Yep. Even if it is empty.

Yep. Absolutely. Yeah, so I think that's it,

though. Yeah, I think that's it, too. Until we

get more news, that is. Wherever that may be.

retailer con or retailer day or licensing retail

day, whatever the hell it is. Yeah. So I'm sure

we'll be back with another episode next week,

folks talking all about the news that, Hey, if

they're going to reveal stuff for 40th anniversary,

2024, I'll be here for it all day. Hell, we might

stream the shit live if we can. Oh yeah. Yeah.

I'll think about it. Well, no, if it's transformers,

we'll think about it. Yeah. All right, Megatron,

you want to get us out of here? The seeds of

the future lie buried in the past. Yes. Or other

places. Yes. I wish to speak to my lawyer.