Collecting Transformers Figures and Beast Wars Toys

This is artist Josh Burcham, and you're listening

to the GeekCast Radio Network. This is Megatron,

and you've found the All Things Transformers

frequency here at the GeekCast Radio Network.

Join Steve and Mike as they unleash the beast

in you and discuss All Things Transformers. Excellent!

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

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

me this adventure into Transformers is TMG1 Mike.

Hello. Hello. Yes, last time we talked about

cartoons, this time we're talking about toys

because you are obsessed. I have a problem. You

have a plastic crack problem. And it started

in January. And it has stopped. 2021 is not nice

to me. So I, yeah. When it comes to Transformers

toys, like I've always, like my first ones, because

I had to try and riddle them down to what I got

originally. My first ones were Beast Wars, obviously.

Before I ever saw the show, I think I got them,

or no, I did see the show and that's what prompted

my parents to pick them up. I got to the Beast

Wars Grimlock, the Beast Wars Chidor, Beast Wars

Armadillo and Iguanas, which I still have the

Iguanas because my brother saved it for me over

the years. I gave it to him years ago and I forgot

I gave it to him. So when we were in Michigan

last, he's like, hey, you want it back as long

as you're not going to sell it. And I says, yeah,

I'm going to keep it. I said, I'm trying to actually

reclaim a lot of stuff I got rid of. And he says,

oh, OK, good. And then so he gave it back to

me and it was in. Perfect condition. So I saved

myself 25 bucks. So yeah, I bought years ago

because I went through a massive purge of just

all my stuff. Like I just dumped it, which was

kind of good and kind of bad, kind of good in

the sense that I didn't have room to bring it

all with me when I moved because we were already

to the top of the truck and bad because now I've

gone back and bought everything I got rid of.

I mean, I mean pretty much. Uh, so anyways, I,

I, you know, I got the primal, I got the Megatron

back then. So I got rid of a lot of stuff about

three and a half, four years ago because I just

went through this purge moment and some of them

I got rid of is about two and a half years ago

at the latest. Like there was some I held onto

till the very last minute before the move. And

we were, that was when I was unemployed. So I

was like, I got to dump stuff. I got to get rid

of stuff. I got to make some money, which seems

to be what happens to me every time I have all

these things that I want. And then. I go through

a moment where I have no job or I have no money

and I need money and so I dump it. Hopefully

I don't have that problem again. But anyways,

all I had left was Power Master, or not Power

Master, Masterpiece Optimus Primal. The only

Masterpiece I'd owned since Optimus Prime, which

I did sell years ago. I somewhat regret that

one, but I somewhat don't. It was heavy, huge,

and I had nowhere that I could put it because

it was too tall. My obsession is with the War

for Cybertron figures, because not only are they

much more detailed and articulated and have a

lot more posibility, you know, ankle joints,

knee joints, double joints, you know, wrists,

elbows, hands, fingers, you know, everything

you can think of the next tilt, like they don't

just turn, they tilt. And so, I mean, they're

even coming with blast effects with stuff now,

which never would have happened. I still wait

for that stasis pod, but So anyways, I ended

up picking up, and this is where the addiction

cracked in, I got Kingdom Megatron. Saw him at

the beginning of January, the next week found

him at another target, after I called around

to like four of them, after I drove to all four

of them, picked him up, and then I had him. And

then I was like, this is great. I'm like, it's

as close to masterpieces I'm going to get because

I can't afford it. Then I got Scourge from Studio

Series 86, which those are beautiful figures.

If I had the room for them and I had the money

for them and they were like, I probably would

pick them all up because they are spectacular.

Like the hot rod, I was so on the fence on that

one. If it weren't for the fact I'm hyper -focused

on the Beast Wars characters right now, I probably

would scourge and get them. But I do love the

fact that Hasbro's making everything with the

War for Cybertron line, they started this, and

I think somewhat with Power of the Primes, they're

making them all in scale, which has never happened.

Right. So they're making them all in scale. They're

all, you know, roughly about the size they would

be to everybody. You know, there's a couple of

glaring differences when you look at the core

size figures. But again, the core size figures

are actually about a centimeter shorter than

the original basic figures from 25 years ago.

I put the iguanas next to my rat trap and there's

a height difference But the detail and the articulation

on the new stuff is insanely better. Although

they're still cheap on the paint Which is where

my customizing came in But so anyways, I've picked

up the majority of the beast cast I've gone back

I have three versions of rat trap at this point

one of them's transmetal one thrilling 30 and

then I have the kingdom I have like it's really

30 waspinator you know i have all the i have

optimal optimus again i have masterpiece um transmetal

optimus primal i have you know masterpiece uh

dragon megatron i have you know a variety of

other characters now um and you know i have dino

bot i have air razor i have you know i'm just

waiting on rhinox and a few others that are coming

out this year and i i'm going to call it good

um but But yeah, so I mean, it's turned into

this weird thing where I'm like, oh, I got to

get them all. I got to get this. I got to get

this. I got to get this. When I really don't,

it's just, it's become that thing that I always

wanted it when I was a kid. Never get them. And

now I'm like, I don't care. And see, I'm pretty

much the exact opposite. Like I love the toys.

Don't get me wrong. I absolutely do. I love the

G1 toys from my childhood, but if I was to have

any of the G1 toys again right now, it would

be few and far between that I would absolutely

want to have. See, back in 2005, from 2005 to

2011, I was working in the social work field

and I was getting paid decent money and I had

Extra money every month. So every couple of months

I'd buy figures in total at that time I spent

a thousand dollars G1 Optimus G1 blaster G1 Soundwave

and a couple other G1 figures that in total,

you know throughout the purchases like one was

125 one was 300 one was this one was that you

get to think this is back 2005 2006 when you

know Those things were going, and I don't know

what the G1 Optimus goes for on eBay now, and

I don't care. I'm not looking at that at this

moment. I'm just saying when I started collecting

toys again as an adult back in 2005, it was because

I want, just like what you're doing now, I wanted

to recapture my childhood. I wanted to have everything

back. And then in 2011, some things happened

and I had to sell it all. And I'm like, okay,

fine, sure. And from 2011 until... 2017 I had

like I love the toys. I love looking at the pictures.

I love seeing them I love that the fact they're

released I've never had a inkling of having to

have them again except for Funko pop Now, you

know this most of the listeners should know this

back in 2009 2010 I believe it was Hasbro. I

could be wrong. I don't remember off the top

of my head But there was a line called Mighty

Mugs. Yep. And they were super deformed versions

of all types of characters. That's essentially

what Funko has been doing since 1998. The pop

line debuted a number of years ago now. I forget

when, and I'm not trying to just gloss over when

Funko debuted the pop line. But when I found

Funko Pop, I was like, oh, they're kind of like

what Mighty Mugs used to be. And I was like,

oh, this is cool. I absolutely dug it. I thought

it was great and I don't collect all the Funko

stuff I only collect the characters that I want

in my collection or the for me the reason why

I love Funko is because I Can have something

you've seen the the the old diet dr. Pepper ad

campaign with Justin Guarini as little sweet

Yeah, I know I know you've seen this if I showed

it to you, you'd know what it is But basically

Justin Guarini was an American Idol runner -up

back in the first season of American Idol. He

lost to Kelly Clarkson, whatever. But I have

his little sweet diet Dr. Pepper Funko pop. Would

I ever have another action figure like that or

the McDonald's characters? Now, I know McDonald's

has done stuff with their Happy Meals over the

years, but the fact that Funko has a grimace,

a birdie, a Hamburglar, a Ronald McDonald figurine

that I could have, that I could just have to

look at to just Hey, this is grimace from from

McDonald's who the purple guy he used to be a

villain Kind of thing and now they're doing the

retro toys line which includes transformers and

I don't know how far they're gonna take it Right

now we have multiple versions of optimus prime.

We even have a nemesis prime funko pop We have

Grimlock, we have Megatron, Bumblebee, two different

versions of Bumblebee, Starscream, two different

versions of Soundwave, Jazz. And I think that's

it. I'm sure there are more to come. But I just,

I think it's super cool and super fun. And, you

know, we've done the reveal, not reveal, but

the reactionary episodes to the announcements

of the Kingdom line and things like that in the

past year on HTTF. Do I love that Kingdom Galvatron

and Commander Clastrotomus? Absolutely. Love

it. Love looking at it. I think it's great. Wow,

there goes Animated Prowl down the street. You

know, do I need those toys in my collection?

Well, first of all, Funko Pops are like, as long

as you don't buy them aftermarket, they're anywhere

from 10 to 20 bucks. Whereas Kingdom Galvatron

is $50. I don't have an extra $50 and I don't

buy I don't buy Funko pops all of the time hell

I'll just say this right now long time fan of

the show long time fan of GCR and long time friend

of mine Bondo Mike he sent me the game heat I

I found him an eBay listing off for it, but he

basically sent me the GameStop Optimus Prime

Funko Pop with the Orange Energy Axe because

it's a GameStop exclusive. I'm like, thank you

so much. This just made my day. However, this

pop, I don't know what they were doing with it.

So the Funko Pop Optimus Prime, and I don't know

if it's with all of them, but at least I think

it is because I think that's the way the mold

is. They're trying to mimic the the 84. Toy So

it looks like you know his his arms look just

like It has the stickers on it. It has the Autobot

symbol on it. It looks just like the old toy

was except The way funko pops are is the heads

are always bigger than the bodies Optimus Prime

is very very top -heavy. I took him out of the

box once today to take pictures and then he went

right back in the box after he fell over onto

my little purple Grogu figure that Pia 3D printed

for me. I like it. I think it's great. I love

that they're doing it. And I love that I have

it. At the same time, if I needed to get rid

of my toy collection tomorrow, because of whatever,

if something happened, heaven forbid, I would,

and I would be fine not having them anymore.

I've just gotten so used to not having things

where it's like, it'd be great if I get it, but

I don't lose sleep over it if I can't. Yeah,

see, I try to adopt that mentality, but sometimes

it doesn't work. But I think, but I do have a

hard cut off. Like there are like, yes, when

I like to get my hands on a lot of the War for

Cybertron stuff, certainly. I love the new iron

hide mold. I love the new, you know, there's

a lot of new molds that I would just love to

get my hands on, but I don't have that extra

money. Honestly, probably shouldn't be getting

the ones I do. But the I'm strictly sticking

with like Beast Wars. And to begin with, I was

trying to get multiple versions of characters.

And I was like, that's not really realistic.

I'm going to stick with just getting one version.

of each character, unless it's like Masterpiece,

Megatron, and Optimus. And those were different.

I'm still waiting on a Transmetal Megatron. But

after I get that, then I'm set as far as the

leaders. But for instance, they're not going

to have a Tarantulas with Kingdom until 2022.

Well, I don't like his regular beast form anyway.

I like the Transmetal. So I found a Transmetal

one and just got lucky. I just got lucky. Same

thing with Rattrap. Would I love to get a masterpiece

of both of those? Oh, yeah, absolutely. And depending

on cost, I probably would. More than likely a

rat trap over the other, but that's just because

rat trap. There's still some things to be desired

with the figure. And his backpack doesn't swivel

and flip on his back. You know what's needed,

like what kind of a part. I don't know what it's

called. Otherwise, I would kit bash it and do

it myself. But I can't figure out what it's called.

to do that work. And so I just, I'm leaving that

part alone, but I have repainted it. That was

my first one I started repainting. When I repainted

the head and the face and part of the legs and

the arms and everything, it looked beautiful

because it was the Fox Kids, actually it was

the 10th anniversary reissue of the figures.

So it didn't have the, the problem with the original

trans metals were not only did they have some

that had the gold plastic syndrome, Which for

anybody that doesn't know what that is look it

up on TFWiki basically It's a certain type of

plastic that they were unaware of at the time

that they started using and it uses a particular

form of plastic Which was very brittle, but they

didn't know that until well after so basically

within a five -year time period Your toy would

be pretty strong Then it would start to ease

up Yeah, then it would snap for no apparent reason

like even if you weren't even pressing hard on

it, it would just snap. And there was no rhyme

or reason to it. You could leave it in the box,

you could take it out. The only way that you

got away from that is, is Hasbro is the one that

did it. If you bought the Takara version, they

didn't have the problem. So if you bought like

the metals version, which Megatron says Destron

on them, so you can tell the slight differences.

Key doesn't have brittle plastic syndrome. And

so therefore, if you buy that version, you're

perfectly safe. But if you buy the other one,

anything can happen. Well, anything can happen.

Either the arms will snap off from the chest,

which that is the most common. I had two of that

Megatron. Both of them did it. Same arm or the

swivel joint that's on the waist where the tail

flips and where the rest of it, it does its thing.

it will snap like the swivel joint that attaches

the top part of the torso to the legs will snap

and it will break. And so that's the other option

that you have with the Hasbro version. And there's

many issues with the Hasbro stuff compared to

Takara. Although when they went in 2017 for the

Power of the Primes, they went with an aligned

thing where Hasbro and Takara now do all of their

R &D together. So there is no Takara version.

They're all the same version. Right. So you get

a little bit of the best of both worlds. You

get a little bit better paint decos in some regards

than what Hasbro would do, although some areas

are still lazy, specifically the beasts. There's

aspects about that I'll get into in another episode

about customizing. But the detail, like the physical

detail that's there that Takara was known for

is there, but Hasbro is cheaped out on some of

the parts easily. You can tell when you're touching

them. But I've enjoyed what we've gotten out

of the line. And so matter of fact, as of this

recording, I found somebody on eBay that was

selling a transmetal Megatron and it was snapped

at the waist, but has everything else intact

perfectly. It's snapped at the waist, which means

there's one of two options with it, if you get

it. Either A, you glue his waist and it fixes

the problem, but he can never transform. I'm

going to try another attempt because I only spent

$10. There you go. And that never happens. No,

it doesn't. Always go for 30. Yeah. So I've been

looking because like I can get an intact Megatron

transmetal for as low as like 60, but I don't

want to spend that when the likelihood of a third

party transmetal masterpiece version is going

to come in the next year or two. So I'm not going

to waste that kind of money on it. So I bought

this one because I'm like, I have one of two

options. I can put a bolt because it's hollow

in his chest cavity because the arm is holding.

I can put a special type of bolt, drill into

the spot where the original piece was in the

leg part of the torso and screw it into there

and have it just so that it's loose enough on

the top where I can still rotate it and have

it click over. Right. So that is my goal when

I get this figures because I'm bound and determined

that I'm going to customize it paint wise. But

the likelihood is it's going to stay in robot

mode, which is what I do with all my. figures

but but yeah so i mean i've really enjoyed you

know the aspect of collecting again of getting

certain figures of trying to just get that one

perfect version of the character um like dino

bot i'm not going to get the transmetal too like

um i'm not collecting necessarily fuse orders

i mean if i come across the cheap silver bolt

and quick strike maybe i'll pick them up if i

come across the cheap rampage in depth charge

maybe i'll pick them up maybe i'll just stick

with season one which honestly i'm more likely

to do because i'm almost there So, I mean, yeah,

I mean, I'm looking forward to some of this because

they're finally coming full circle. They're finally

giving us articulated, like, scaled down masterpiece

figures in an affordable budget, like DinoBot

specifically. Yeah, he looks a little goofy in

some of his paint apps and in his beast mode,

but his robot mode, other than some missing paint,

I mean, he looks like a mini version of the masterpiece.

And he's $30 instead of $300. So I mean you kind

of get what you pay for but I I'm loving the

fact that Hasbro is doing this the scale that

they're doing with all their new figures so that

it's They're there. I mean, I know that Beast

Wars and Transformers are technically like G1

are technically different, but they're with us

so but it makes it nice for display purposes

because you don't have somebody that's like Like

the old Beast Wars figures, you have characters

that are insanely oversized or insanely undersized

next to somebody who is the opposite. Yeah. Yeah,

this whole one scale fits all type of thing where

they, you know, have a commander class Rodimus

or a leader class Galvatron or whatever other

class of whatever smaller. But at least they

all look good together. Every picture I've seen

of people getting these Kingdom figures or getting

the Studio 86 figures, every picture I've seen

people post that has them all kind of together,

they all look really, really good together. There

really isn't any that are like, oh, he shouldn't

be that short or he shouldn't be that tall or

he shouldn't be that. Skinny or fat or whatever

kind of thing as I proposed the question last

time when we talked about cartoons I'll say it

again now with toys For the listeners tell us

your toy Collecting habits and tell us about

how you like having your toys also this is going

to tie into the fact that ladies and gentlemen

the rebirth The rebirth of toy cast is coming

June 11th 2021 That's right episode 100 of toy

cast is coming and then We head into a whole

new era and boy do we have some fun stuff planned

for you guys So yeah, that's my pitch for toy

cast and yes toy collecting it's fun It's stressful

Shouldn't be but it is Well, it's gotten more

stressful because you have scalpers Yeah, that's

a whole other discussion fall that that that

Yeah that there's no supply I Went into Walmart

the other day they still have like three or four

Cyberverse bumblebee figures on the shelf and

nothing else and they had everywhere everywhere

I go they have cyber verse like still pretty

stocked It's the rest of them that are like yeah,

you're hard -pressed to find Kingdom if you want

siege or you want Earthrise you can still find

those or you can find the reissue headmasters

or the The red line, but everything else is pretty

hard -pressed to find the red line. I don't mind.

I think that's kind of cool I don't mind that

but i'm saying like as far as like finding kingdom

or any of the new figures If you don't catch

them the week that they come out, you will not

see them again for three months Yeah, yeah, you're

you're you're absolutely screwed. Yep What do

we got coming up next we're going to talk about

comics on the show as we head toward our 200th

episode In version three of all things transformers.

Anyway, you know, well, it's actually Its version,

it's all things Transformers. So I actually,

that number is calculating back to the very first

episode of the version 1 .0. So there is no 3

.0. That's why it's all on that aligned continuity.

So basically what he's saying, folks, is till

all are gone. Yep. Yep. Yep. All right. You got

any final words for us, Megatron, before we get

the heck out of here? No, but stop scalping my

toys. I mean, you need a haircut. I mean, it

was 2020, you never know. Where's my masterpiece?

At the store somewhere. Not yet. Transform and

transcend, and we'll catch you next time here

on All Things Transformers. Ha ha ha ha, yeah.

I wish to speak to my lawyer.