Transformers Animated Toy Line Review

Jazz here, and I'm jiving to Transformation Animation.

Will these infernal setbacks never end? The revolution

begins now! Transformation Animation Podcast

features Mike Blanchard and Michael Wilson. Hello

and welcome to episode 17 of Transformation Animation

Podcast. I am one of your hosts, Steve, you and

Mike, and joining me is Pecan Corp Michael. Hello.

Hey, how's it going? It's going and making his

Transformation Animation Podcast debut is Spade

of the Bolt Matrix. Hello. Hello, sir. How are

you? I am doing well. Yes, and the three of us

I mean there are other friends that we have that

love animated toys, but Seeing as how this podcast

was mainly myself Michael and Steve Steve Isn't

into the animated toys, so I figured why not

get you know someone else who really is So Michael

what have you been up to? Lately I've been playing

Elder Scrolls 5 Skyrim. Yeah a lot everybody's

been playing that game a lot yeah I have successfully

replaced sleep with Skyrim and it hasn't caught

up to me yet but I'm sure it will soon oh yeah

especially with the holidays coming up and eating

all that turkey I'm going on three hours of sleep

right now so forgive me if I pull a Steve Oh

My Other than work I have been up to Skyrim Uncharted

3 I put Modern Warfare 3 in my in my console

last night and then fell asleep on the couch

I've been trying to I have been trying to do

some upgrading to my reviews and I bought a bunch

of equipment or a bunch of stuff and it all came

this week and All of it was wrong, so I had to

send just about all of it back, save one thing.

Wow. That's great. Yeah, I ordered a green screen

and some equipment and some other stuff, and

it's like $200 worth of stuff. I had a crap -ton

of Amazon credits stored up. Yeah, when they

say green screen, the darkest... Darkest forest

green does not make a good green screen No, oh,

yeah Yeah, like a bright sunny happy green. Yeah,

and when you say it comes with software and it

comes with Like a stand for the green screen

do not send ripped software and PVC piping That

got in Amazon that went that one went to Amazon's

customer service saying uh Yeah, you know guys

who are selling this are pretty much doing things

illegal. Yeah might want to look into that That's

that's amazing. I can't believe that That's pretty

bad that that's like almost eBay bad. Yeah, yeah

But uh, so yeah, I'm trying to get some reviews

done. Just, ugh, free time has been lacking.

All free time has been Uncharted 3 and Skyrim.

Yeah, I can't get away from the Skyrim. It's

supposed to be 300 hours of gameplay. What's

really bad is I go to play Skyrim and I want

to throw a grenade and they aren't there. Wrong

button. Wrong system. It's like, why isn't the

grenade throwing? So a huge part of any cartoon

franchise for the most part is toys and that's

what we are here to talk about today is the all

of the released transformers animated toys from

the activators to the bumpler battlers to the

very rare hard -to -find exclusives until they

end up being you know Shelf warming for six months

after the fact What are you talking about that

never happens? I bet I can walk it. I bet six

months ago. I can walk into a Toys R Us and see

45 iron hides and two RCs I was just in my Toys

R Us today. They had an entire peg of Rodimus

and Snarl oh Wow really yeah I was like, wait,

what? I've seen I've seen pegs of Rodimus. I

haven't seen any RCs. That's since I bought two

of them there. Yeah. I still hate you for that

video. I got one on my shell. Anyway, so where

are we going to start, Mike? We are going to

start with the children's toys or what Michael

Wilson likes, which is the activators. There

were, I believe, seven waves of activators. There's

a lot of activators. Yeah. I'm actually going

through my shelf right now and looking at all

these and thinking, there are a lot. I forgot

that there were this many repaints. Yeah, you've

got in wave one has bulkhead, bumblebee, and

Starscream. Wave two has lockdown, optimus, Autobot

ratchet, and then wave three has patrol, bumblebee,

and thundercracker. Wave four, Megatron, Grimlock,

and bandit lockdown. Yeah, Wave 5 has the very

elusive Cliffjumper and Dirge. And then Wave

6 and Wave 7 have Fire Blast Grimlock, which

he did come out, didn't he? He did, yeah. Okay.

No, it's the other one that didn't. Goldfire

didn't come out. Goldfire was the deluxe size,

I think. Well, we're getting ahead of ourselves.

Yeah. Yes. Soundwave and then Wave 7 had Armor

Up Optimus and Battlefield Bumblebee. I don't

know this is this one's pretty much all on Michael

Wilson because I honestly when I When target

had that $5 sale of the shockwave the purple

shockwave with bumblebee activator Yeah, I actually

sent my activator to Malunas because I hate the

activators. They're too small for me No, I had

I didn't have much of a problem with them. I

had two of them. I had or I have two of them.

I have the Starscream, which was a gift from

Hailstorm when she sent me a classics hotshot

or generations hotshot. And I also had Autobot

Ratchet, which I bought something at Target,

but it wasn't like one of the special figures.

And I somehow ended up with it. I don't. I don't

know how I got that. Let me put it this way.

I don't remember paying money for it. So basically

you put it in your cart and forgot about it and

walked out of the store. Entirely possible. Okay

then. Not on purpose at all. I swear. See, I've

been accused of theft, but never actually stolen

anything, so... No, no, no. You haven't been

accused of theft. You've been accused of going

in the background room and opening boxes when

you weren't supposed to. That's what you've been

accused of. And there's nothing wrong with that.

You know what? You've put on a red polo shirt

and some khakis and they'll let you back there.

I should really think about that to go find those

TF prime figures Yeah, well back it back when

the you know when these toys were coming out

I was Really really wanting though. I mean there's

especially like these activators these were the

later waves were really hard to find and I was

really hunting for them, you know, and sometimes

you have to take Extreme measures to find the

toys that you want As a collector, right? We're

such desperate nerds. It's sad. It really is

but that's uh, I forget what he's called, but

like the magma Grimlock The gold fire or not?

Fire blast yeah, he literally looks like he's

just came out of a Out of a volcano. So it's

like, you know magma Grimlock, but that was really

hard to find The the thundercracker was really

hard to find dirge. I didn't think I'd ever find

a dirge But yeah, I'm pretty happy Now the activators

were on shelves for a good while along with the

along with the bumper battlers, correct? Yes,

they were yeah the bumper battler. I'm really

surprised that anybody bought those I mean there

I mean I bought them for my kids and they loved

them and then I Absorbed them into my collection

when they would got them playing with them you

assimilated them Your distinctiveness will be

added to my own The yeah, the bumper battle is

I liked them But you know by the time they started

getting in the repaints the repaints were hard

to find Yeah, so I mean there was a there was

an optimus prime repaint in toxitron colors Oh

wow purple and green yeah, and they call them

like night watch optimus prime or something,

but I got yeah night watch yeah, there was supposed

to have been a repaint of Bulkhead I think And

I couldn't find him. Couldn't find him anywhere.

But yeah, and I wanna say that there was a...

Oh, edit point, yeah. I'm blanking here, sound

wave. I wanna say there was a sound wave and

I didn't get him either, couldn't find him. And

it's like, you know, where are they showing up?

Do they go directly to big lots or what? Probably.

Well, it's sad because, you know, toward the

end of this tour line, a lot of stuff either

just disappeared or didn't get released or ended

up going straight to Big Lots or Dollar Store

or something. Everything pretty much goes to

Big Lots after it's done. I mean, that's how,

at the time when I was collecting robot heroes,

that's how I found half the robot heroes I had.

I just found them at Big Lots. Oh, yeah. Yeah,

I found a few at Big Lots too, but I think for

the most part it was one big eBay lot. Someone

was just dumping all of them off. Yeah. I mean,

the Activators and the Bumper Battlers, they're

okay, but let's face it, they're pretty much

for children. Well, the Bumper Battlers are just

horrible toys. They remind me of, like, Runabout

and Runamuck from G1. You know, and the only

reason anybody likes them is because they had

a cool comic cover at one point. You know, they

weren't even in the cartoon. So you've got It's

basically a car and the top of the car pops up

and there's a little robot under it and it makes

noise It says something from them from the TV

show and they're cute And like I said, I got

them from my kids, but I really enjoy the activators

Yeah, I like the it's a very simple transformation

And it's all spring -loaded. So, I mean literally

you push a button and he completely transforms

all by himself Except for you know, like maybe

the feet need to be Yeah, bent out or something.

They remind me a lot of the later G2 toys. So

you have like the G2 jets, Space Case and Terra

Dive and those, and they were all spring -loaded.

And that aesthetic carried through to the early

Beast Wars toys. the scout size ones. So you've

got like the original Rat Trap. And the Prime

and Megatron 2 pack and Razor Beast and Iguanas.

Exactly. Yeah. I mean, that's a fine toy. Those

are really cool. And they came back to that with

the Activators. And granted, you're not going

to get, you know, snap on weapons that have their

own hidey holes like you do in the early Beast

Wars toys. But I mean, these are still really

nice and The molds are I mean like I said, I

really like the the seeker mold for these the

Starscream was nice but then you know, you've

got a dirge and Thunder cracker. I know there's

a sky warp in Japan that Thorazine has He's got

them all yeah, but he's got all the seekers all

your seekers are belong to Thorazine. Yes But

yeah, I really wanted that, because I just like

these little guys. They're cool. I mean, the

only drawback is with some of the molds, the

spring -loaded catch doesn't hold very well.

So it's hard to keep them in their alt mode.

But they look really good in regular. Like I

said, this Grimlock is awesome. Practically,

because of the show, the way it's animated, it's

very simple, right? It's very minimalistic. I

was going to say, these figures are... For the

most part show accurate even at their size. Oh

Yeah, yeah, and especially if you're a seeker

collector You know you don't have to buy all

these Voyager size seekers because you can get

them for six bucks at the smaller price point

Yep Spade any last thoughts on activators or

bumper batter dollars. I think they're a cool

idea or specifically the activators, but I was

never a big fan because I I like transforming

them myself, but for smaller kids, these are

great. Because for smaller kids, I mean like

three, maybe four. Kids today just don't have

the capability of doing the more complicated

transformations. Well, even some of us adults

don't have it either. Well, yes, that is true,

but I think the activators were a good idea.

I just don't think that many people bought them.

But that leads us into probably the best -selling

part of the line, which was the deluxes. The

deluxes. Now before we get too far into this,

do you guys remember what the first deluxe class

figure you both bought? Spade, do you remember

which one was the first that you ever got for

the deluxe size class? For Transformers Animated?

Yeah, because I got a couple of the deluxes all

at the same time. The first one that I opened

was the set from... was the two pack deluxe set

where you had battle damaged Cybertron Optimus

and battle damaged Cybertron mode Megatron. That

was the first deluxe set I opened. What about

you, Michael? Me too. That would be it. I think

the first deluxe I ever bought probably was Elite

Guard Bumblebee. Really? Because she came later.

I know he came much later, but I Again back at

the time when the show was airing because and

I've said this before on the show because at

the time it came on at like 1030 in the morning

on Saturday, and I just couldn't remember to

watch it and yeah, just really was Watching video

reviews so and in all in all honesty some of

those episodes were especially in season 2 Very

hard to watch yes If you don't like the human

characters, yeah, that's kind of hard to watch

the this interesting story about when I when

I first found the Animated toys I was at BotCon

2008 and There was one guy who showed up and

he said hey I was driving up here and 20 miles

to the south or whatever, there's a Toys R Us

that has all these toys. And they really hadn't

been released anywhere else yet. And to my knowledge,

they released them in that area around, what

was it Lexington? No, 2008 was in Cincinnati.

Okay, in Cincinnati. So I remember I drove. So

they had them in that area specifically because

Botcom was there. And one guy got a complete

set of like The first wave was like six figures

and was like showing them off to everybody and

people were freaking out completely I was in

line for something and the guy walked by and

go look at this and come in the opposite way

was Scott McNeil and So it's me and Scott McNeil

and this guy with the you know, the the animated

toys and we're all just going completely nuts

over him But on the way home on the drive home

we stopped at a Walmart And it was just like,

you know, there's a Walmart every 50 miles off

the highway So we pull over we look yeah, they

had them all they had like wave one and two Yeah,

and I bought them all and Christie's like didn't

you just spend like two grand on toys and I'm

like, yeah, but I'm gonna buy these eventually,

you know, I might as well do it now So I walked

out with all of them like a whole cart full of

them Yeah, but yeah, it was it was a great find

I mean, you know as a toy collector and a toy

hunter to run into something like that, you don't

You know, it's it's it's uh, it's nice looking

a gift horse in the mouth. You just don't do

it Exactly, you know, it's like, you know How

long it's gonna take me to find this particular

guy cuz he's wave two and he's not gonna be released

anywhere else in the country for six months You

know, I'm gonna get him right now Yeah, in wave

one we had Cybertron mode Optimus, Bumblebee,

Lockdown, and Prowl, and wave two was Blackarachnia

and Autobot Ratchet. Well, wave two was really

kind of a 1 .5, and then... Yeah. It really was

weird because you had Cybertron mode Optimus,

Bumblebee, Lockdown, and Prowl, and they were

all... I'd say the weak... personally, the weak...

One out of that bunch, for me, was lockdown.

But that was because of the hand issue. Really?

Oh, yeah. What was the hand issue? The fact that

you couldn't... You could only put them... Let

me try speaking again. The fact that you could

only flip the hand out halfway, so it looked

like his hands were constantly pointing into

his thighs. Oh, I see what you're saying. Yeah,

they won't push straight forward. They couldn't.

You would have to take the figure apart. I see

what you're talking about. Yeah, it looks like

there's a catch on his wrist, like it should.

Mm -hmm. Like it should be able to do that, but

it's catching on the inside of that frame. Well,

it's not just the frame. It's also there's too

much plastic on the actual hand, and there's

too much plastic on the inside of the wrist.

On the inside of the wrist, yeah. And then Bumblebee

had his own. That's never bothered me before.

It drives me batty. Bumblebee also has his own

set of issues where the little stingers will

not fold all the way into his arms. Now, that

was corrected in his repaint, which was released

in Wave 4, I believe? And then Prowl had his

own issues where he would fall apart because

the ball joints weren't the correct size. Wow.

That's amazing. The reason I'm talking about

this is because this is showing something that

happened with the entire animated line that really

hadn't happened before. And that is the severe

lack of quality control. And this came up because,

one, Hasbro changed factories where they were

having their toys built. They went with much

cheaper factories. It was evident Huh, yeah That

yeah, I never noticed that about the bumblebee

before but I've got The you know elite guard

bumblebee here and his singers do fall back completely

Yeah, and they do not on the on the original

the originals, right? I'm the other thing about

the original was and this goes to what Spadis

said a second ago about just crappy construction

in the factory the regular deluxe bumblebee they

couldn't pick a shade of yellow to save their

lives. I mean on one side it's neon yellow on

another side it looks like it's painted almost

dark gold another side it's another color yet

it's like pick a color already. And that was

because all of the plastic parts were made in

different factories. Specifically with bumblebee

because they were using different paint mixes

Normally when they make these figures they make

the part when they make all the parts all the

parts are cast together in the same factory Hasbro

has stated that that was not the case and with

bumblebee for some reason Because they were having

a leak guard bumblebee, which was actually made

first They were if you actually look at elite

guard bumblebee the plastic where it's black

is different cult is different plastic Than where

the yellow is and if you go back and look at

the original bumblebee It's where that black

is is where the coloration differences come in

all right hmm So technically elite guard bumblebee

wasn't the repaint the regular bumblebee was

the repaint Correct in the manufacturing process

right right That is interesting, you know in

2000 I want to say 2008 There was a Walmart exclusive

called legacy of bumblebee and they had a repaint

of classic bumblebee and a repaint of movie bumblebee

and a repaint of Animated bumblebee where they

all well animated and classics have the the racing

stripe Mm -hmm. Well, he said he already has

a racing stripe. So technically that's not a

big deal. That was um I can't remember what store

that that was an exclusive for, but I know what

you're talking about. It's Walmart. It was Walmart.

It was a multi -pack Autobot Ratchet and Bumblebee

2 pack. Thus far, this pack has only been found

at Toys R Us stores in the United Kingdom in

Germany. Well, I was about to say, it looks like

his arms are the ones where the singers fold

all the way back. So it literally looks exactly

like the original bumblebee except for the for

the stingers Yeah, that's kind of neat So we

just drug him out of the closet. I'm gonna put

it back now so Yeah, like Spada said, Wave 2

is essentially also Wave 1 because they released...

I don't get that. Like, if you're gonna have

a wave of toys, three or more makes sense to

me as a wave. Two figures in one wave? That makes

no sense. You also had Black Arachnia and Autobot

Ratchet. Was it actually a... was it with the

whole wave just two figures or was it those two

figures and Bumblebee and Optimus again? No.

No, it's just those two figures. And that's another

thing we will as we get farther into this that

folks will see is their wave distribution in

this series or in this in animated is just so

out there. Hasbro just completely forgot how

to do its job. But Blackarachnia was an OK figure.

It wasn't bad, but it was so tiny. It was the

smallest animated figure, hands down. All of

the deluxe figures tower over her. I was going

to say, what about Soundwave, because he's kind

of squat too. She's shorter than Soundwave. Wow.

And then Ratchet was a pretty damn good figure.

Yeah, a ratchet was pretty cool. I like the earth

mode ratchet more so than when we get later to

talk about the Cybertronian ratchet The earth

mode ratchet was a really really great design

No, I like it I like the fact that he has tools

and he can hold them all and you know, it's it's

just a it's a neat toy You know and then wave

3 is where we get Autobot jazz oil slick who

the hell is that snarl and sound wave and now

the only reason why i say who the hell is oil

slick is because at the time wave three came

out we were still in what season one or season

two season three had me i mean oil slick wasn't

even in the show yeah and when he was he was

in there for what two minutes yeah exactly yeah

i think that was kind of an afterthought they're

like hey wasn't this guy a toy let's just throw

him in there for fun And the funniest thing,

I think I said this last week or a couple weeks

ago on this podcast, you know, when I've gone

into like Walgreens or Rite Aid or something

like that like a year ago, I would find oil slicks

out the ass in these just overpriced pharmacy

stores. No, I'm going to stop you there. I strongly

suggest you rephrase that. Why? Just trust me.

You can't say overpriced pharmacy stores. No

no no no no no found him out the ass Yeah, anyway,

sorry He was essentially you know after the people

that got him that wanted him He was essentially

one of the biggest shelf formers in the line

because you would find him pretty much Anywhere

and everywhere, but he didn't appear in the show

Not yet, no. And when he did, like Spada said,

it was for, or Michael said, it was all of, you

know, less than five minutes. Yeah, he had one

line. Lincoln, you'll miss it. Yeah. But no,

I'm looking at him now. This is a cool figure.

He's a cool toy. He looks cool. Oil Slick is

a fantastic figure. Yeah. He's one of the best

in the line. Yeah. He's a, I mean, they could

have played him off as like the anti -prowl.

He's a motorcycle they both have nunchuck weapons

Well, yeah, this is kind of a nunchuck sort of

like a barrel slash nunchuck thing I mean they

they could have done a lot with this character.

Oh Yeah, but it's just that's a very cool toy.

I Really liked Autobot jazz. I thought he was

really cool Soundwave I wasn't wasn't the best

figure but I see what they were going for and

it was he was an interesting character in the

show for the two episodes he showed up in hmm

well yeah he was an interesting character in

the show but the the character design in the

show I don't think really translated to the toy

because I mean the the overall design deco and

the overall Aesthetic of the toy compared to

the animated design is correct But the toy was

just as Michael said he was way too squat for

me. He did not say deluxe class figure He said

more of like a scout class or legends class figure

rather than anything else. I would agree with

that I mean it was a very small figure Well,

I think yeah, just because of his robot mode

It's kind of uh What are they like a scion type

of thing? Psyonix, yeah. Yeah, but I mean when

he transforms he looks he looks just like he

does in the show But when you stand him next

to the other figures, he's at least a head or

two shorter Especially when you stand next to

like a lockdown. He's half the height of a lockdown

Well, everything was half the height of a lockdown.

Lockdown is bigger than Voyager class figures

Yeah, no, he's really tall and lanky, but the

I mean this figure may have been better in like

a Voyager class. Oh, yeah i'd yeah i would so

like it better if he was a lawyer size is kinda

like one that uh... that one uh... uh... was

i thinking uh... bulkhead where voyager bulkhead

is a decent toy but you wouldn't buy him because

you'd want a big bulkhead you'd want a leader

class leader bulkhead is better than voyager

bulkhead exactly so i mean if they had to release

uh... a voyager class sound wave i mean i'm not

sure what they do with all this stuff on them

they might make him open up and keep guitars

in his chest or something i don't know that would

be cool that would be cool but and then the last

the last figure in that wave was snarl snarly

here's snarly which was the same height as uh

black arachnia yeah that yeah he is that figure

sucked he's supposed to be short and squat though

yeah i didn't mind him being short and squat

because i think that was his character He's got

a lot of, you know, translucent orange. I love

his head sculpt. I think it works for him where

it doesn't work for Soundwave. I think the one

problem that I have with the wave releases is

that if you're gonna have the Dinobots as toys,

they all need to be in their own waves. Snarls,

Swoop, and Grimlock should have all been in one

wave. a team rather than sporadically releasing

them in oh hey look let's throw snarl in with

these other three guys and let's throw a swoop

in with these other two so wave four we have

swoop a lead guard bumblebee and sentinel prime

everybody that has listened to this podcast before

and anybody that's talked to me about transformers

animated pretty much knows my feelings on sentinel

prime and sentinel primes toy worst toy ever

really I just... I just agree with that. Yeah,

I put him in robot mode. There are worse out

there. He's not the best. Definitely not gonna

lie to you. Where's Toyin animated then? I mean,

aside from these giant shoulders, he's fairly

cartoon accurate. He's got an awesome head sculpt.

uh... he he looks at what he does i mean that's

that's that goes without saying saying i mean

all the toys are cartoon actor but well you can

tell us to with him is just the fact that again

it's the same problem i have a sound wave he

just seems too small like if this was a boy even

though i don't care for the characters at all

if this is a voyager class i might like the toy

a little bit better i can see that i i could

i can also see how if they had I don't want to

say you know spent the money, but you know literally

they could have made him a little taller his

legs are very squat compared to his chest and

and especially the how they have like lockdown

Literally being really really twice a twice the

length of his vehicle mode almost in height They

probably and I don't want to say this for certain,

but I would I would Probably go out in a limb

and say that originally his legs were supposed

to extend somehow to make him taller So that

he would be a little bit more in proportion to

his upper body. Oh But at some point they got

lost or something. I mean you can see The way

his the way his lower legs transform the back

half It's like a hinge or something that swings

it down I mean I could see how they could have

done this in such a way where he could have gained

you know half an inch to an inch and Also something

for all of those with the all spark almanac.

I think it's the all spark almanac The sentinel

toy mold was slightly remodeled and redone to

be an iron hide earth mode toy mold That, yeah.

It was a pretty big redesign, but it looked awesome.

Was it in volume 1 or volume 2? I believe it's

in volume 2. Yeah, that's when they talk about

all the toys. I'm actually going to look it up

right now. Spade, do you have any thoughts on

Snarl or Leek Guard Bumblebee? I like the Leek

Guard Bumblebee. Hated Swoop. Hated Swoop. Yeah,

Swoop. That's what I meant. Not Snarl. Swoop.

I'm actually looking at my shelf here for Swoop,

and I'm not saying that. Somebody must be standing

on top of swoop. I'm not seeing him in here,

but a leak our bumblebee my favorite part about

him was the fact that He had the same color as

his prowl Yeah, so you could yeah, I mean you

could literally put a leak our bumblebee on top

of prowl and be in good shape It would look like

he's writing him, you know And they were the

same color Or it would have been a good compliment

for the highway theme that prowl had going Yeah,

it would have been you know I really liked Lee

guard bumblebee just because He's black with

blue windows, and he's got gold around the sides

of him So it's almost like he's a reverse gold

bug where he's a black bug Okay now now if we

if we start looking forward at the last couple

of waves We have waves five six and seven now

for me waves five and six came out at the exact

same time in the stores around here. And that

was Wave 5 with Blazing Lockdown, Blur, and Swindle.

And Wave 6 was Waspinator and Samurai Prowl.

On my stores, I found everything except Samurai

Prowl. I love Samurai Prowl. You what? I love

that character. He's awesome. Yes. It's a cool

toy. My only issue is once you put the Samurai

armor on, he can't... Really move. He's frozen

in time. I had a problem with it falling off.

It doesn't clip on anywhere. It just kind of

balances on his head. Well, there is that. But

he looks really cool. That's very funny. Out

of these two waves, I like to blur the best,

even though when I bought blur. As soon as I

got him home and I tried to transform him his

legs immediately promptly fell off. Mine too.

Did you throw those behind the desk or was that

something else? No, no, we'll get to that story

later that that was with optimists. We'll get

to that later No, I a buddy of ours Optimus scourge

may he rest in peace. He actually did a video

for me He did it for more so for everybody But

where you basically boil some hot water dip blurs

legs into the hot water and it would melt a little

bit Wouldn't melt though It would it would it

would form the plastic so you could actually

have an easier time of putting the legs back

on Mmm, okay. Yeah, it wouldn't actually melt

the plastic. Yeah Yeah, and then swindle I like

swindle swindle is an awesome character in the

show. He's an awesome toy Again, my only problem

with him is if he was maybe Voyager class. I

would have liked the toy a little bit better

There's nothing not to like with swindle. I Had

an issue where his top chest would not stay Where

was it? Just kept flapping around. Yeah. Blazing

lockdown was just a yellow piece of poo. The

only thing interesting to the only thing the

only thing interesting to me about blazing lockdown

was the spikes in his neck. Those were kind of

cool. I like the fact that he came with a chainsaw.

Yeah, I dug it. I thought what I liked about

it is he's a repaint. But he's a remold as well.

Unfortunately, the figure didn't do anything

for me, just as Waspinator. I was really psyched

to get the figure, and it was kind of a letdown.

It was such a letdown. It was, yeah. And again,

Waspinator was again one of those to actually

both of these waves stayed in my stores locally.

Target and Walmart stayed on shelves for months

after they got released. I mean, you know, I

was worried when I bought the original blur,

I actually went back like the next day to get

another one for car mode, and I was worried that

blur was going to be gone, and lo and behold,

you know, looking behind several sentinel figures,

there was a blur. You know, but these two waves

were one of the biggest bats of shell formers

in the line. Now, do you think Waspinator was

such a big letdown because it wasn't more of

an homage to Beast Wars Waspinator? Yeah, pretty

much. Because I think to me this figure looks

a lot more like the Beast Machines Wasp figure.

And I forget what it... Buzzsaw. Yeah, Buzzsaw.

It looks like a taller version of Buzzsaw. And

even in robot mode or alt mode, in the WASP mode,

they look very similar. And my thoughts on Samurai

Prowler, a sidecar, are you kidding me? No, it's

cool. And then Wave 7. Wave 7, I like that they

did electrostatic sound wave because it was kind

of homaging the repaints in the show. But Wave

7 is really where... animated almost crossed

over with the freaking movies freeway jazz You've

got to be kidding me a movie animated version

of jazz. It was a silver jazz. Yeah Right, you

know, I would have been a lot happier with like

a stepper repaint Yeah, yeah, seriously. No a

stepper repaint would have completely blew my

mind I would have bought the hell out of that

so before we move on to the next wave or next

uh net next class do you guys have a number one

favorite out of the voyager waves spada out of

the voyager waves or not voyager deluxe sorry

um hitting into myself in all honesty no uh i

liked a lot of them but none of them were absolute

stand out Fantastic figures they were all there

were some good ones and there were some Not so

good ones if I had to pick I would have to pick

oil slick What about you Michael for the deluxe

is do you have like a personal number one favorite?

Yeah, I Hate to waffle like this, but it's like

I like them all If you had to pick one who would

it be? I don't know, let me look here. Megatron's

got his fusion cannon pointed at your head. Pick

one. You have to pick one. Actually, you know,

just looking at them all, I want to say that

one that's the most visually striking would have

to be like oil slick. But, you know, that Rodimus

that came much later, he's looking pretty good

too. Well, and I should state, the way that we're

doing this, even though we are going by size

class, I saved the exclusives for the end. So

we'll come back to the other deluxes as well.

Revisit that one. Just looking at the shelf,

the ones that jump out at me the most are those

exclusives. So going into Voyagers, again, what

was the first Voyager you ever picked up, Spada?

Well, I picked up a couple at the same time as

I said, but the first one I opened was I think

it was Megatron. I think I'm pretty sure it was

Megatron and then Starscream. What about you,

Michael? I want to say it was Starscream. Cool.

I'm thinking Grimlock for some reason, but I

think he came later. Yeah, groom luck was in

wave 2. Yeah, but I definitely open the Starscream

first cuz I like that character Yeah, wave one

for Voyager has bulkhead Cybertronian mode Megatron

and Starscream I didn't particularly like I like

Starscream in the show. I like his colors in

the show, but I didn't particularly like the

toy colors Something was off on the toy colors

Yeah, and I oh Go ahead. I'm sorry I was gonna

say I didn't really Think that the the toy colors

were I don't want to say they were g1 accurate

because they weren't but even though he's an

homage But I thought they were very show accurate,

but I preferred the repaints. Oh Yeah, yeah now

I have I I have an opinion on Starscream that

is not widely shared Okay, I think the Voyager

Starscream figure is a complete and total piece

of crap Is that because it fell apart on you

at one point? Well, it's not just that. I mean,

it really isn't just that. The Voyager Starscream

figure is a 100 % ripoff of every single Robotech

toy ever made, or Macross. It is the exact transformation

for Macross figures. Really? Dead exact. It is

spot on to every VF -1 and VF... I'm trying to

think what the one it's actually most like is.

Whatever is the red... the VF -19. I'm sorry.

No, it's not the VF -19. It's very similar, almost

to disturbingly the same figure as G -1 Jetfire.

Yeah, see I'm looking at my g1 jetfire right

now, and I'm trying to compare the two going

well how the Transformation is exactly the same

huh I I don't know I'm differing on you. I don't

I don't think that's the case, but as someone

who owns a lot of macros figures I've only got

the one I have I have the vf1. I've got the vf5.

I've got the vf19. I've got the vf21 I've got

a lot of those figures and Starscream is a is

a ripoff. I'm sorry. I can kind of see where

you're saying that like the You know the the

dorsal portion of the plane splits in half Behind

the the cockpit and it and it then bends over

to become the the front and back halves of the

plane Or the front and back halves of the robot

mode I should say so you've got like this chest

here the thrusters to see that the thrusters

in in vehicle mode become the legs the robot

arms tuck in between the rear thrusters the Chest

area and the backpack form the fuselage and the

cockpit areas. It's exactly the same as a Robotech

figure. Well, that can be said for any number

of the Seekers from any line. When you look at

Energon and... Not really. Not really. It's not...

What I'm saying is the Starscream animated figure

or that mold is a one -to -one transformation

ripoff of those Bandai figures. Okay, I'll kind

of go with that I'm looking at like the the jetfire

and Just the way the legs fit. They're like attached

to on either side of the cockpit and For the

the Starscream it doesn't work that way at all

the the The crotch for lack of a better term

right actually Completely folds underneath the

cockpit the whole front the whole front of the

cockpit pushes up the whole front of the fuselage

pushes up under the cockpit. And then... In future

Bandai figures, the cockpit doesn't push up into

the chest, it actually folds, or I'm sorry, the

nose cone folds up completely into the chest.

As opposed to just sliding up. Yeah, so that's

what's happening with... I'm actually holding

a... Skywarp, so that's what happens to skywarp,

but the original jetfire his His whole nose cone

kind of comes down into a crotch area and the

legs attached to a diecast metal piece on either

side of that Now so he doesn't really have a

crotch with with Well, he has a crotch. It was

well does the crotch is the nose cone of the

plane Yeah, but if you're saying that later figures

transform just like The animated figure then

I'll buy that because I don't I don't know any

better. Yeah I have I have a figure upstairs

in in our guest room that is a It's a I'm gonna

say it's a it's a hundred and dollar It's a hundred

fifty dollar figure that comes with like a shat

ton of accessories Yeah, but it is a one -to

-one transformation similarity. It's disturbing,

but it's a nice transformation the only problem

I have with this Transformation is that the the

The cockpit is supposed to lock in place at the

crotch level and it doesn't it's very loose it

is and then in the back You've got these two

tiny wings that aren't even attached Mm -hmm.

They're kind of like wings that are almost like

like the tails of a sport coat or something,

you know and They're back there, but they fall

off and every time I go to pull his backpack

is back over Right? Because it doesn't lock into

place either. It kind of flops around. Those

little sub -wings fall off. And that's the only

problem I have with them. Do the legs fall...

Do legs break off at the upper thigh on your

figure at all? No. Okay, mine... My figure had

all the problems that yours does, plus the legs

falling off at the thighs. You know, mine...

I'm twisting mine around like this. Mine has

a very satisfying click there. You can hear it,

yes. Yeah, at the crotch level, the hip level,

let's say. Not at the hip level, there are swivel

joints right below the hips. Oh, okay, now there's

a swivel joint below the hips, but then there's

also a hinge directly below that. No, the swivel

is where mine, my figure... Now, I've also gotten...

I also ended up getting a Skywarp. Same exact

issue. I took him back and got my money back.

The other ones in wave one are Bulkhead and Cybertron

mode Megatron. When I saw Cybertron mode Megatron,

I was like, really? This thing doesn't look like

anything that we saw on the show. No, it doesn't.

It's like they couldn't figure out what to do

with the gun. Yup. And Bulkhead... has a really

good vehicle mode the robot mode sucks yeah it's

not a good robot mode no those legs are horrible

the legs are horrible just the figure itself

is not very good but then in i believe it was

wave two we got probably the best figure of the

entire line Would that be Earth Mode Optimus

Prime? Yes, it is. Yeah. Even though Optimus

Prime officially debuted in Wave 2 of the Voyager

class toys, he was found at U .S. retail later

than the Wave 3 toys Grimlock and Lugnut, which

is really weird. Now, I have an issue with Optimus

because apparently when he was first packaged

and sent out to people, I had bought one at Target,

or was Target a wall? I don't know, it was a

wall storage. I bought one and he had his Autobot

sticker on his left shoulder. I then went back

and obviously there were no more Optimuses at

Walmart so I went online to one of Michael's

favorite websites, Entertainment Earth, and I

ordered one from there. When I got the one from

Entertainment Earth, I opened him up and I wasn't

going to transform him because I wanted him for

vehicle mode. I didn't really care. I didn't

really notice this. As soon as I eventually said,

screw it, I'm tired, I want to change, I transformed

the version I got from Entertainment Earth, he

had no sticker on his arm. I'm like, what the

hell is this? Apparently, some of the earlier

waves or some of the earlier boxes of Wave 2

that got sent out didn't have the sticker on

it. What sticker are we referring to? The one

on Voyager Class, Earth Mode Optimus, his left

shoulder, his Autobot symbol. Oh, I don't have

one. You don't have one what? I don't have an

Autobot signal, insignia, on his left shoulder.

See? That you have one of the first shipments

that went out then, because... Sweet. He then

came out later with... The insignia? With the

insignia on his left shoulder. I had never noticed

that before. Mine does not have one. Yeah, I

so noticed it as soon as I opened that package,

as soon as I transformed it. Now, if I had never

transformed that toy that I got from Entertainment

Earth, I probably would have never noticed it,

but... Yeah, I so noticed it. I never noticed

that. I'll have to take a look at... I'll have

to watch my own video review and see which one

I had. So, you know, I have a problem with this

guy and the problem is that the way the whisk

the the whisk the the waste Yeah It's a Yeah,

I mean there's like a Gear or something that

the turns when you move his waist But and I mean

that's a neat gimmick. Sure, but it's very loose

in a robot mode and it's hard to keep him steady

So that kind of bothers me But you know other

than that. I mean, I love his proportions. I

love I love his colors The way is his battle

mask folds up and down over his mouth That is

awesome You know his head rotates. I mean, he's

just got a lot of articulation. He's a very very

cool figure I could probably do without the axe

And yeah that axe is kind of First of all it's

not show accurate at all second of all That's

where they went back to doing gimmicks for kids

because the axe and the gun, well the gun specifically,

is a water pistol. Which is kind of silly. Oh,

that's kind of worthless, yeah. Yeah, I'm looking

at the TF wiki for Optimus' toys and they do

not have the faction symbol. They then went back.

Which is weird to me because I bought the one

at Walmart. After the optimus wave had already

been out for a while. That's me too. Yeah Like

like it wasn't like I got lucky Yeah, and it

wasn't like that. I had gotten it like right

when it first came on I bought it way later so

the one at Walmart had it and then like two days

after I got that one I went on to entertainment

earth and it's weird to me that entertainment

earth would still have a shipment of Unstickered

optimus's right and you know mine is unstickered

apparently Ah, there you go. You're not going

to be able to find it now. Are there any that

have stickers? Yes, there are. Mine had stickers.

The one I bought from Walmart had stickers. This

line is chock full of writing changes. Oh, yes.

What was in the next wave? Still in this wave

because we just... talk about this for now still

in this way we have uh... grimoire and uh...

and lug nuts i thought those guys were in wave

three all you know they're in wave three also

wave two was just optimist it sounds like it

while uh... all you know it's where i didn't

see any optimist is out until after wave three

three and uh... you know what i saw the wal -mart

i was like oh my god there was a just pull this

out of the back or something about let's scoop

it up and The Voyager class toys for this line,

Wave 2 and Wave 4 only have one figure. Wave

2 has Optimus, and Wave 4 is Blitzwing. So going

into Wave 3, we have Grimlock and Lugnut. Who

I never saw in stores until the end of the entire

toy line. Yeah. Which was so weird. Now both

of those figures were pretty darn good. Yeah.

Grimlock looks awesome. Grimlock is awesome,

yeah. I liked him at the Activator size class,

but he's pretty good at that size class too.

Yeah, Grimlock is awesome. Everybody knows I'm

not a fan of Lugnut whatsoever, just because

I think we needed Astro Training animated. I

would have liked to see an animated Astro Training,

because I love the Blitzwing figure. Yeah, which

is our which came out wave for I absolutely adore

that figure. It's not perfect Not gonna lie,

but I just think it's a fun fun figure Yeah,

it's a fun figure until when attempting to get

it out of the box. It rips your entire thumbnail

off I didn't have that problem. I didn't have

that problem either. You're lucky then, because

alright, Michael remembers this story. I do.

I'll tell it for people that don't know. Because

this was on a Toycast episode, I remember. I

believe it was Christmas of 2009, I think. Yeah.

Christmas of 2009. I went to Walmart. All of

the animated toys were on sale. uh... and i was

like okay well you know i'd like to get a voyager

what voyagers they have they've got these guys

the okay blitz wing i like him in the show pretty

cool i get him home i literally had to have because

of the freedom is before has row into those bread

tie things is when the really hard plastic twist

ties were still in effect I had to literally

half transform him to get him out from under

the ties because I've never had an exacto knife

or clippers to clip it so I would just use regular

scissors but I couldn't get the scissors in the

spot where I had to clip this one wire because

it would have scraped the toy up so I basically

had to transform the damn thing while it was

still in the box and even pulling it out it still

ripped half my thumbnail off. Ouch. Yeah. You

see you need a big serrated knife. Like I got.

Yeah. But Blitzwing is really, really cool. Blitzwing

is a great figure. It is nice. I mean, there's

compromises between the different modes, but

he still turns out really nice. I mean, and his

head, the way it spins and you get to see all

three faces. Yeah. Very cool. Yeah. Any other

thoughts on Blitzwing's Beta? Just a freaking

great figure. Just a lot of fun. Yeah. Wave 5

had Shockwave slash Longarm, the gray version,

which... And Michael's favorite character, Skywarp.

Skywarp? You know, I did not find Skywarp in

stores. I had to get mine off of Entertainment

Earth. And it was like the last one, apparently.

Even though I'm not a fan of Seekers in general

as far as action figures outside of like the

original G1 Seekers, Skywarp's colors on the

Starscream mode look awesome in robot mode. the

long arm shockwave figure. There's something

wrong with you. Well, you need your head. We

all know this, but I like that figure. Now, I

like something that we'll talk about a little

bit later, which is the repaint. But the the

gray version? Oh, no. As as a figure, though,

as a toy, you literally got a quadruple changer.

Oh, yeah. And he looks distinctive. He looks

distinctive in almost every mode. In crane mode

he kind of looks like a tank with the turret

up and something hanging off it. He looks pretty

distinctive in every mode. It's a well engineered

toy. He's very sharp. I love the TF wikis. Because

I'm looking at the shockwave images on here and

you know how they always do witty... Captions

under the pictures for the long arm gray wave

version punch for the shockwave gray wave counterpunch

for the purple ones Chugway and then for the

shockwave version of the purple one one -eyed

one horned giant purple people squisher Pretty

good. Yeah, you know shockwave the The gray version

is great for long arm if you want to have a show

accurate long arm But to just have shockwave

not purple just seems wrong to me and I understand

where you're coming from but and in the show

they actually Talk about that in season three

or they mention it, but I I think it works I

just I like it. I like the figure. I think it's

a good figure. Now, yes, I would have preferred

getting a hold of the purple one later, but it's

still a good figure. And then you've got you've

got two different robot, two distinct different

robot modes, which I just think is awesome. It

is. Yes. And then wave six, you had. Wreck are

an atomic lug nut which atomic lug nut is essentially

just a repaint. Yeah, it's a nice repaint It's

not a bad repaint. What was it green and yellow

was that's all it's almost a teal and the gold

and Then he's got a big black Decepticon logo

on his chest, and he's kind of got He's kind

of got the the yellow and black highlights that

the signify the You know, I want to say caution

tape or like biohazards. Yeah, exactly. I mean,

I like this color better than the original one.

In the picture on the TF Wiki, he looks like

he's more... It might just be the picture, but

it looks like it's more silver on the actual

paint application, just like his legs and his

chest and all that. I don't know, it looks more

silver to me in this image. I don't think it's

silver. This is all, it's all green. Yeah. It's

a dull, tealish green. But he's, um... I mean,

you know, it's still lug nut. Do we really need

more lug nuts? I mean, unless they're gonna give

us a supreme class Omega toy and paint him up

as lug nut. And that kind of does it for, um,

for the Voyager class. Yeah, you know what one

more thing. I was gonna say about lug nut is

the On the cockpit he's got the kind of like

the tiger But the the the oh yeah with the mouth

on the side. It's a very cool -looking You know

plane and then that was carried over into the

hunt for the Decepticons figures yeah Okay out

of the voyagers. Do you guys have a favorite

spada um earth mode prime Michael Would have

to lean toward the earth mode prime, you know

the the wreck are is cool, but He's hard to find

I had a really I mean the the Atomic lug nut

was a shell former you could find him anywhere

could not find a wrecker on the shelves to save

your own life. I Found one and I was really happy.

I like the blue twin character The blitzwing

toy but honestly, I think I transformed him once

and said wow, you know, this is kind of pain

in the ass I'm just gonna leave him in robot

mode. Yep, and left him there and he honestly

there's a very similar to Shockwave where I transformed

him and I was like, wow, this is kind of neat

But he you know, especially purple shockwave.

He looks a lot better as shockwave. I'm just

gonna leave him in this mode. Yeah Yeah, so he's

way in the back of the shelf as purple shockwave

Yeah, I am I don't know. I would have to agree

with you guys. Earthmode Optimus is probably

the best out of the Voyagers here. Going into

the leader class, we had Bulkhead, Earthmode,

Megatron, and Ultra Magnus. And then we also

had two repaints of Galvatrono. I mean, Shadowblade

Megatron. And then Roadbuster Ultra Magnus, which

is redecoed as Generation 1 Roadbuster homage.

electronics that don't have acid batteries yay

is all the old toys you had to actually put batteries

in if you left them in there a long time they

would corrode let out yeah yeah you know the

the leader class toys I didn't open any of them

except for one I did open Road Buster Ultra Magnus.

Yeah, because I really like that toy. I really

like Road Buster. I'm a huge fan of Road Buster.

And I'll open pretty much anything that's looking

like an homage to him. And this figure, you know,

when you push his, I'm sure this is the same

as the regular Ultra Magnus, but when you push

his chest, his mouth opens and he lights up and

he talks. Yes, so that's candy. I like how he

lights up and but I was just blinded me. Okay,

those are bright But I mean this guy is covered

in guns He's a great toy. I mean for I like him,

but I mean for kids this would be an awesome

toy. I Think he's big. I'm sorry, but I was gonna

say out of all the out of all the leaders I think

ultra Magnus is the best He's the only one I

opened, so... Megatron's good as well. I really

dug Megatron simply because it was the Earth...

The Deluxe class... It's the Cybertron mode.

And it didn't even look like what it looked like

on the show, so I felt kind of, you know, gypped

out of that. And then when the Leader class version

came out and it was the Earth mode, that's what

I liked the best about it, was that it was the

Earth mode version. Didn't you have two of those?

No, I only had one. I traded Thorazine a bunch

of stuff for one. Ah, okay. Yeah, I didn't even

open mine. I mean he looks cool. He looks very

simplistic to me though. It's like if he didn't

have lights and sound I don't think I would have

liked him nearly as much. Well, that's the point

of him. Like I said on earlier episodes of the

podcast, when we were talking about the stock

animation sequences, the stock animation sequence

for Megatron is essentially a tutorial to transform

his toy. The toy transforms exactly the way he

did in the show for the most part. Right. Yep.

Yeah. Who needs YouTube reviewers? Go watch the

cartoons. Go watch the cartoons. I don't know.

I'm still playing with Ultra Magnus here, and

he is cool. To this day, I don't like the Bulkhead

figure. No, Bulkhead? Really? Yeah. I mean, I

think Bulkhead really got a raw deal in the show.

They needed kind of a jokey character. They made

it Bulkhead. And it just... None of his toys

were any good. I've heard his Activator figure

is pretty cool, though. Yeah, I think out of

all like if you're just gonna compare the bulkhead

toys up against each other I think the leader

class one is probably the best out of all the

bulkhead toys But bulkhead up against any of

the other leader class or any of the other figures

in general just no But he came with a headmaster

unit so he kind of makes up for it. We all know

how you love the headmaster you noob Yeah I like,

uh, I'm still playing with Ultra Magnus. This

is such a cool toy! I love this hammer! It's

hammer time! And then you've got the the two

repaints, you know Michael said he loves the

road buster and their homages and he loves road

buster in general So you got the road buster

all the Magnus and you have the shadow blade

Megatron now I asked on Twitter I asked Eric

J Wyatt I said So is the shadow blade Megatron

toy just meant to be a repaint and kind of an

homage to Galvatron? He's like, oh hell no Don't

even say that yeah Did any okay before we move

on you guys I'm assuming everybody likes ultra

Magnus the best out of the leaders. Mm -hmm Moving

on to the supreme class did anybody buy these

the rollout command optimus and and the All the

powerbots something different, but did anybody

buy rollout command optimus Chrissy bought it

for me Did she? I was not going to buy it because

it's like 50 bucks. Yeah. And it looks to me

a lot like the, uh, the, the Voyager size. Yeah.

And I, you know, I wasn't going to buy it and

she came home with it. She was like, look what

I got you. Well, the kind of difference is, is

that, um, That rollout command optimus does have

a lecture. I mean he's essentially a leader class

I mean even though he's in supreme class. He

does have David cave voice electronics. Oh I'm

looking up in the closet to see if I can see

him. I see the The the jet storm and jet fire

that I never bothered to open Yeah, I've got

a couple of those target exclusive shockwaves

and sunstorms that I bought and didn't open I'll

take a couple of those if you want to sell them

to me. I've got one more up there, but I can't

tell who it is. Just says Decepticon Voyager

class on the side. It's probably a shockwave.

So, getting into the entertainment packs, or,

well, Spade, did you have any opinions on Rollout

Command Optimus? Nope. Saw him on the shelves.

Even when he was 15 bucks on clearance, I didn't

buy him. Aw, see, I would have bought one for

15 bucks. Moving on to the entertainment packs

we have Optimus Prime versus Megatron the battle

begins to pack now didn't this come with a DVD

yes What was on the DVD I can't remember I? Never

watched it. I think it was the first or second

episode Okay Something it was it was a random

episode or either that or it was like a description

of It was like all the previews or something,

I'm not sure. Now the two figures in general,

are they both battle damaged or is it just Optimus?

Yes, they are both battle damaged. Optimus has

like black battle damage. Megatron had black

battle damage as well. Do we like these figures?

Are they good figures? They were okay. I mean...

It was the only time we saw Megatron as a Deluxe.

And I think the Deluxe figure was very similar

to the Voyager, but I think it was a better figure.

And the Optimus figure was, if I remember correctly,

just the Cybertron version. Yeah, a Cybertron

-y version with battle damage. And that was a

decent mold. I mean, that was not a bad mold

at all. I liked the alt mode for the Cybertronian

Optimus, but the robot mode just didn't... never

really cared for that. The one thing I did like

was it was a completely different transformation

from... almost a completely different transformation

from the Deluxe or the Cybertron mode to the

Earth mode. Their transformations were different.

Yeah. And then Wave 2 has... Team up that Michael

can't stand jet storm and jet fire Can't stand

that one those were not good figures They were

not figures at all. I think we were talking about

them in the last episode and I want to say that

I had the I had compared their combined mode

to you know Cuddling with your with your girlfriend

your wife in my case where you have your arm

underneath her And and you know your arms falling

asleep, and you want to move it, but you don't

really know where it's supposed to go You know

that's basically what the combined mode of the

jet storm and jet fire was I was just going Where

do the arms go they're falling asleep? I don't

know When I first transformed it, I did something

wrong, and I had one of the arms sticking out

between the legs. Oh, nice! Who can then? I'm

like, wait a minute! This can't be right! They

know what to do with their arms now! But the

other thing that really irritated me was they

were almost the same figure, and they turned

into glorified robotic lawn darts. That was their

vehicle mode. Yeah, and their combined vehicle

mode was two lawn darts stuck together. Yeah,

and you know for all the combining and Interesting

things that they were supposed to do they weren't

not good toys. They were not good figures They're

horrible. I should say they are not a are not

good figures Yes, because they all haven't been

burned in a fire yet That is true Much later

after even all the stores well not not even after

all the store exclusive stuff But much later

after the regular lines here they came out with

the powerbots with cyber speed and Street Patrol

bumblebee which essentially are just repel well

Street Patrol is essentially just a repaint of

of cyber speed bumblebee I Saw these in stores,

and I was like well. I guess you know kids old

get a kick out of it, but who really cares? Oh,

you know what? I didn't buy those. That's how

bad they were. I don't even remember them. You

know, I have the movie version. I should say

my kids have the movie version of both of those.

And I did not get the animated one because I

just thought they looked so bad. Yeah, they here

is the Here is just a cyber speed image Yeah,

it looks horrible. He has one stinger No, but

it's like Yeah, the transformers that don't transform.

Yeah. Yeah Badness. Yeah, they released the movie

versions three times Oh, yeah, I know look at

the mood for the movie versions now have they

have a different arm. There are four different

repaints Yeah Yeah, so So bad moving on to the

exclusives the ever elusive exclusives You had

a couple of two packs stealth lockdown with legends

class bumblebee and legends class optimus You

had a rescue ratchet with legends class Starscream

and legends class prowl Now somebody got fired

over those, I'm sure. Why? Well, I mean, these

are two packs, right? They probably should have

retailed for about $19 .99. And when they first

came out of the stores at Target, their Target

exclusives, I walked in and saw them in $19 .99

and said, yeah, that's pretty good because that's

about how much you would pay for the Voyager

class. But, you know, I'm gonna wait. I'm gonna

pass on it for right now. Maybe when I get a

little more money next week, I'll buy them. Well,

by the next weekend, something strange happened.

Well, they went on sale for five bucks. Yes.

Something happened. This also is true for Sunstorm

with Ratchet and Purple, finally, Purple Shockwave

with Activator's Bumblebee. This is a really

funny story. I think because I've never done

this my entire life You know how they always

advertise the coin star stuff, okay? It was a

Saturday morning Derek J. Wyatt it posted on

Twitter. Oh, hey shockwave in Sunstorm or five

bucks at Target I was like is this just in California

or is this everywhere you said I think it's everywhere

I took probably a jar that was filled almost

to the brim with pennies. I took it up to the

Kroger, put it in the Coinstar. I got like 15

bucks in pennies worth. I then walked over to

Target and bought two of the, actually, I was

sneaking through the toy aisle because there

was a bunch of kids there. There was one left

of Shockwave and Bumblebee. I just kind of. reached

around this old lady snatched it and just went

right up to the counter see at my store there

was a huge stack of them and i bought like three

of each because you know i would have spent twenty

bucks on them anyway so why not yeah true um...

now going back to stealth lockdown rescue ratchet

do you guys have any opinions on these do we

like these figures because i never really I never

really saw these in stores. I think I misspoke.

Those were not five bucks. I actually paid full

price for those. Yeah, no, those those are full

price. What was five bucks was the sunstorms

and the shockwaves. Right. What bothered me about

the stealth lockdown and the rescue ratchet is

that they came with Legends class figures that

were not repainted. So I, you know, I basically

had already bought the Legends class figures.

And it's like well, it looks like a horrible

thing out of an old a team episode Well, it looks

like a lockdown. He's cool -looking No, I just

mean his his paint deco. It looks like an army

car. You would see in an old a team episode Oh,

yeah, he's kind of gray translucent and with

like a lime green Yeah, I like color he's cool

and I I mean I I like having my lockdown stand

side by side because they're very distinctive

from each other And I really like the yellow

rescue ratchet I don't know what they were trying

to homage here, but he looks really cool. It's

a it's a color that's Brighter than bumblebee.

So it's like oh, it's yellow. God. There's a

lot of yellow in this line But no, this is a

very bright yellow. Yeah, this is like traffic

I Mean this is like, you know people always say

oh, I hate that fire engine red color This is

like if fire engines were yellow. I mean, this

is how bright this is Wow He's bright yellow

with a fire engine red highlight. Yeah. Yeah,

so no, it's it's it's a striking figure You know,

and it's it's up that that ratchet mold. That's

really nice Yeah, what are your thoughts on these

two spada? Don't care for the stealth lockdown.

Just didn't really care for that particular color

and that weird translucent -ness. Didn't care

for it. But the Ratchet was, it was okay, but

man, it was on the target shelf forever. Yes,

it was. I am not kidding you. Before Dark of

the Moon figures hit, it was still in the clearance

aisle. In my local Target. Wow. I like them,

though. I would pick them up all over again.

But again, you know, I already had those Legends

class figures, so it was a tough sell for me.

In fact, I think I let them wait until they hit

the bargain bin first. Yeah. And before we get

to Sunstorm, I actually have... I mentioned a

couple episodes ago on this podcast, which Spada

will have no clue of unless he listens, which

I don't think he does. That I had a story about

the shockwave purple repaint the story basically

goes I I asked Derek J Wyatt What was you know

how did you guys get? purple wave into the show

and he basically told me that He saw the toy

was coming out and he ran really quickly to one

of the animators and said hey I know that you

know this episode is pretty much done But is

there any way we can add this into the end and

animate it like this? for the future episodes

and basically within five minutes they added

it into the show at the end of uh ice uh this

is what i hate machines isn't that where it came

in something like that yeah it was one of those

episodes um but no the the the purple on shockwave

makes it looks like a way better figure it's

pretty amazing and if i remember right i want

to say the toy came out before he turned purple

in the show The toy, yeah. The toy was out. Oh,

yes. Yeah. And it was like, hey, wouldn't it

be cool if he did this in the show? Yeah. But

they had already set that up, though, because,

well, they had set up the electromagnetic paint

swap thing with the Wasp episode. Right. Where

is that thing? Right. So the paint switch or

the color switch was already there to set up.

They just had to implement it. So it was so awesome.

So awesome very cool. Yes and then for the Toys

R Us exclusives we have bulkhead and Megatron

leader class with Bumblebee and star activators

Bumblebee and Starscream Wow more re -releases

lovely I don't think I have that Were they repainted

at all? No, it's just it's just leader class

Megatron and bulkhead extra figure tacked on

Yeah, but the extra figure tag don't need to

wait. I didn't buy it because I yeah why I'm

still trying to figure this out, but why did

this line have? so many freaking Exclude store

exclusives Yeah, why lot? Well, I think at the

point of the main four that we're gonna talk

about for the for the really elusive Well, two

of the really elusive exclusives because the

other two are nothing but shell formers since

they're repings of each other RC and Rodimus

they came out at the end of the line They were

they technically they came out after the line

was already dead, right? Right, and they were

Toys R Us exclusives, right? That was a complete

surprise and I had heard for months about, oh,

they're out and people are buying them. And I

went back to my Toys R Us for at least two months

every weekend. Could not find them. And I thought,

you know, they they didn't distribute them properly.

You know, they they short packed them somewhere

or something. And they're they're not going to

show up here. I'm never going to see them. And

two months later, I did see them. You know, they

sold out really quick. But then, you know, later

on, they become shelf warmers. Yeah, it took

months for them to show up in my area. Yeah,

the same here. I mean, and the funny thing is,

when I would go around to Toys R Us's and stuff,

they would have the two shell formers, they would

have Cybertron Mode Ratchet and Ironhide everywhere.

Cybertron Mode Ratchet specifically, he was everywhere.

I honestly think that they short packed RC like,

you know how some What is it sometimes waves

come in like four or six? I think if it was six

it was four Cybertron mode ratchets and two RCs

per wave Well, if you look at the if you look

at the case assortments for the upcoming Transformers

Prime toys RC is going to be short -packed. Yeah

Mmm, so is cliff jumper. So is bulkhead That's

a shame Yep I don't know you there are still

iron hides on the shelf that my toys are there's

also some Walmart exclusives Michael mentioned

earlier about the the the bumblebee evolution

of the legacy or yeah I forget what it was called

now there was also a revenge of black arachnia

2 -pack with optimus from the battle begins to

pack the land deluxe class black these are just

to milk so the stores can have exclusives these

are just releases of figures we've already gotten

I think what had happened is after the first

movie came out the toys sold so well that all

of the major retailers were saying I want exclusive

toys I want exclusive toys then the first movie

toys kind of trickled down and Hasbro says hey

we got this new series and all the retailers

said I want exclusive toys well they didn't realize

that they were gonna sell for shit in fact it

wasn't until They canned this series and the

new movie toys came out that they really started

picking up again. And the last thing, because

I know Michael has a really, really awesome story

for this. The last thing we're going to talk

about is the McDonald's Happy Meal Toys. Before

you tell your story, in North America we got

Megatron Optimus, Bumblebee Ratchet, Starscream,

and Lugnut. In Latin America, they got Optimus,

Bumblebee, Megatron, and Starscream. In France,

they got Optimus, Bumblebee, Megatron, and Blitzwing,

of all people. And Poland got Optimus, Bumblebee,

Megatron, and Starscream. And the Optimus, Bumblebee,

Megatron are the same molds from the North American

release, but with more detailed paint applications.

Blitzwing is the only new mold out of all the

Happy Meal toys. So I remember you told me this

story on one toy cast. You had heard something

about animated toys being at McDonald's and you

were just gonna go for one Happy Meal and I don't

know, tell the story. No, we were at like a Walmart

or something and Christy's like, we're gonna

pick up lunch. We're gonna go over there to that,

you know, the McDonald's. It was a McDonald's

built in a Walmart. Right. And I'm thinking,

well, that is really strange. You know, she was

pregnant. She was very pregnant at the time.

So I'm not going to the... you know tell her

no you know it's like yeah yeah honey whatever

you say so so we head over to the mcdonald's

and and uh i said uh you know what do you want

and she's like well i think i want to get a happy

meal and i want to get a happy meal for aiden

and i said all right she goes well what do you

want and i said i think i'll have a big mac and

she's like no you're getting a happy meal I said,

I am? She's like, you're getting three Happy

Meals. Like, why? And she's like, we're getting

all the toys. We're getting them all right now.

And I'm like, best wife ever. I mentioned it

to her in passing, oh, you know, McDonald's has

a Happy Meals with the toys. And I'll probably,

you know, maybe we'll get a Happy Meal and try

to pick one up. You know, but she she filed that

away in her, you know steel trap of a mind and

it popped out later at the the least expected

moments Yeah, why we got nothing? He's a pregnant

wife's no less, you know But no she uh, she would

not only remembered but she got me all the toys

that day She haggled with the lady like six hamburgers

or six cheeseburgers I think I yeah, I think

I went through like four Happy Meals or something,

but it was totally worth it Yes We are gonna

take a quick break You're gonna hear some ads

and maybe some quotes from from the cartoon stuff

like that And we're gonna come back with final

thoughts on the toy line Transformation animation

podcast will be back after these messages You

can now hear the GeekCast Radio network while

on the go with Stitcher Smart Radio. Stitcher

is a free use and talk mobile app available for

your smartphone. And when you download Stitcher

to hear GeekCast Radio, you'll have a chance

to win money. Downloading is quick and easy,

just find Stitcher in the App Store. During registration,

hit the promo code box and enter Keycast Radio,

or one word, to get automatically entered to

win $100. The latest episodes of the shows will

be waiting for you in your favorites. You'll

get access to lots of other amazing shows too.

Always available to you on demand, no sinking.

It's Stitcher Smart Radio. Don't forget to enter

promo code KEYCASTRADIO when you register. Welcome

to my throne, Future Tales. The Beast Unleashed

podcast is over, not gone. You can hear more

of this great podcast discussing all the episodes

of Beast Wars and Beast Machines on GeekCastRadio

.com. We include voice actor and writer interviews

with stellar hosting by Steve, Mike and Michael.

Head on over to iTunes or the Net or else I will

send you my vehicles to extract your spark and

destroy you. No, there will be no Operation Interference.

I am TFG1Mike and you should be listening to

my very first podcast, the TFG1 Podcast. 24 episodes

covering the entire US run of the 1984 Transformers

cartoon. I also have a few supplemental episodes

and an interview with Stan Bush. I bring in guest

hosts who will be full -time co -hosts in Steve

Megatron and fan of the show now co -host Pecan

Court Michael. So check out the TFG1 podcast.

You can find it on iTunes and the web at www

.geekcastradio .com. Transform and roll out!

Stan Bush here, and I dare you to check out Radio

Free Cybertron. This is Brian Kilby, host of

Radio Free Cybertron, the original Transformers

internet radio show, and one of the world's first

podcasts. First online in 1999. Yes, 1999. We've

been doing this for a while. We are also the

official podcast of Tformers .com and quite frankly,

we're pretty awesome. So check us out tfradio

.net. Now back to Transformation Animation Podcast.

We are back and... Spada, final thoughts on the

overall animated toy line really quick. A lot

of the figures are pretty good. There are some

really outstanding figures like Voyager, Blitzwing,

and Earth Mode Prime, and Deluxe Oil Slick, but

for the most part I'm sorry to say I think most

of the line is a little bit on the forgettable

side. There are a lot of figures in here that

I just don't care for, unfortunately. Yeah, I

would have to agree for me. I obviously I love

Rodimus. I love RC. I love blur Purple shockwave

earth mode optimus elite guard bumblebee elite

guard bumblebee was the only bumblebee I ever

owned because after watching several well your

your video review and several others video reviews

of the regular bumblebee I was like yeah, I don't

want a toy with multicolored yellows. I just

don't care for that So Michael, what are your

final thoughts on the line that have been released

to this point? I want to say I Was honestly excited

for each and every one of the figures that came

out. I mean this is probably One of the last

lines in memory that I was really really hunting

for like I have to have that figure I'm gonna

go each and every Walmart, Kmart, Toys R Us in

my area until I find it. That being said, yeah,

it's a hit or miss line. Most of them are really

nice. They have their flaws. But again, as far

as movie accuracy, show accuracy, personality

that is built right into the mold, the smirk

on Starscream's face and things like that, it's...

It's a great line. It really is and it doesn't

hurt that I really like the activators because

that makes up a good quarter of the series. So

before we close the show, Spade, what do you

have coming up on your YouTube channel, if anything?

Oh, that's a good question. I've got some Sentai

stuff coming up, and I'm really going to be going

back and doing some Brave Figures. And with Thanksgiving

coming up, I'll be going up to visit my folks,

and a lot of my stuff is up in their basement.

So I'm going to be bringing hopefully back a

ton of Gundam figures for everybody to watch.

Nice. Awesome. Thank you for joining us here

on Transformation Animation Podcast. If there's

still ways to get in contact with us, leave feedback

for the show. Visit the website geekcasteradio

.com. You can comment on each episode post. You

can also stream all of our podcasts on Stitcher.

Go to Stitcher .com for that. Leave the show's

feedback in iTunes. Please do this. Follow us

on Twitter. The show name there is TFA Podcast.

Mine is TF2 and Mike. Spada, what is your Twitter?

I am at BoltMatrix. That's B -A -L -T -M -A -T

-R -I -X. And Michael? Not at Burt Toast. My

Twitter account is PconCTMichael. Become a fan

on Facebook, go to Facebook .com slash GeekCast

or Radio Network, call the voicemail line, tell

us the show you're leaving the message for and

your name, 502 -526 -5821. We hope you enjoyed

this episode of Transformation Animation Podcast

and wish you'll join us next time when we will

be talking about the toys they promised but we

never got. For now, I am TFG1 Mike with... Spade

of the Bolt Matrix. And Michael Wilson. Long

live burnt toast! We're saying we'll tap you

again next week