Seibertron.com Energon Pub Forums

Turn on your cloaking device because it's time to Wreck 'n Rule once again with the Seibertron.com Twincast / Podcast. This latest episode features the G2 host Scotty P as he's joined by Aligned Megatronus and Binaltech Asterisk Car Robot RodimusConvoy13. With the fan vote done for another year and the malaise of the springtime upon us, get ready for some takes on all the latest in Transformers that aren't quite hot yet because they need some time to thaw before we can bake them, ok?

Episode #195 "City of Fear" is available directly and in our RSS Feed, and should appear on iTunes, Google Play, and Stitcher Radio within 24 to 48 hours of when you see this news post.

The results are in for the latest Generations Fan Vote, with the winning duo of Deluxe Class figures (each sold separately) announced as Impactor and Mirage. Despite the presence of Classics Mirage, Combiner Wars Mirage, Generations Impactor, and the TFCC Subscription Service Impactor, it seems fans can't get enough of certain characters - or want a proper Transformers toy of Impactor at any rate. Is it the power of comics, or is it something else altogether? Hang on tight as this topic journeys into the wild and goes for quite a long time, with opinions and musings about why some characters keep coming up in plastic form time and again.



Wave 2 of Power of the Primes has been out for at least a couple weeks now, and with our impressions of the Voyagers cut short during the last episode we take some more time to examine them in detail. RodimusConvoy 13 also tells us about the pair of Deluxe Class figures he's had the opportunity to find and purchase in Rippersnapper and Moonracer. Even Rodimus Unicronus and his questionable facial hair decisions get a mention as we hang out and chat about our newest toys.



As the G1 line of the week winds down, another line is winding up in the form of the Movie Studio Series. Listeners of our last episode may remember that Scotty P was one of the early adopters over Toy Fair weekend when the Movie Studio Series Wave 1 Deluxe figures went up for a limited time sale on Hasbro Toy Shop. With these figures in hand, the team discusses the highlights of the wave and even some of the drawbacks too. Plus, we pretend we know anything at all about marketing, but really we're just disappointed that these aren't quite the premium line-up they're hyped up to be.



The toy talk carries on further and into the latest releases and rumors in the Masterpiece lineup. MP-40 Targetmaster Hot Rod has arrived with a fun new deco and another shot for collectors to pick up the Targetmaster Firebolt accessory that was included with the older Hasbro release of the first Masterpiece Rodimus Prime. Of course, there are also comparisons to be made to MP-28, the first Masterpiece Hot Rod.

Then we pick up on the "basically news" that a third version of a G1 styled Masterpiece Optimus Prime is on the way. No one is surprised and the cast is encouraged, as we discuss other incarnations of the character from the Masterpiece lineup such as the first release of MP-1 Convoy. Of course, there is also some talk about room for improvement that could be available when considering MP-10, the first Masterpiece of the bygone "Super Car" era for the line.



We go full on 90s next, with ad-hoc Recommendations From Another Time! This new segment covers some toys you may have overlooked, and possibly even some you'll never be able to afford. We follow the trail set upon us by the ghost of a dead Battle Beast to go off the beaten trail once again. What on Cybertron is this paragraph talking about? You'll have to tune in to hear the sort-of rules for the segment before you hear our random recommendations.



After that we move on to our first Listener Question of the episode from Acesmcgee, who asks:

Acesmcgee wrote:So I saw the video by Gotbot, I think, where he modded his POTP Rodimus. So my question is, what is the most extreme modification you've made to your transformers, if any?

The hour gets a little late, so before we fall asleep in front of the microphones we pick up the pace and mention our favorite art and story moments from Optimus Prime 16. This second part of "The Falling" story arc has excited us and continues to build the excellent character of Soundwave within IDW's Transformers comics. Listen in to hear about what great moments there are in store within this latest chapter of the series.



After that, we take a second Listener question from Ironhidensh who asks:

Ironhidensh wrote:If, say, a content provider that is actually good, like Netflix or Amazon, decided to put out an adult/older fan oriented cartoon, would you want an all new story line? Or one based off of past or current comics?

While the 16th issue will be upon us soon, that means it's a good time to again go through our favorite parts of a comic with Lost Light #15. The Scavengers' part of the tale comes to an end, with answered questions, new mysteries, and significant developments for at least one classic character. Join us as we roar to the rescue and explore answers definitely not provided by any Magnificence.



We wind down with the Twincast doing something it promised it would never do: break news. Well, kind of. Maybe. Let's not actually call it that. Rumors and hearsay that have a chance of being right are presented for your consideration, and time will tell if they end up being the ultimate plan. What are we talking about? Here's a hint.



Join us on the Energon Pub Forums to discuss this episode, and expect more Twincast Podcast fun in roughly two weeks' time.

Voltron season 5 is insanely good, by the by. The people need to know!

Gonna download and listen while I'm on one of my nature walks tomorrow.

Another podcast that makes me sad. Why? You guys are enjoying the PotP figures, and I just can't. My kids even choose to give thier dinobots away for a church charity (which means they didn't like them as much as I thought) so that enjoyment is gone as well.

All I see as requested cheap money grabso, and I don't know why. I see so many posters enjoying this line, and I wish I could as well, but something with me is different. With this stupid "brand unification" nonsense, even the enjoyment I used to get from the vastly superior Takara paint jobs are done. Even when I get a figure I think I like, I find myself hating it after a little play. Too much forced gimmick and lazy paint, designed for cheap cost versus good figure.

I don't know, early morning rambling I guess. sorry for being negative, I've been trying to avoid PotP discussion to not be a downer, I'll get back to it.

^ No worries at all! Outside of Elita (who's helped out tremendously by the character choice alone), I'm mostly into the Leaders but even they aren't for everyone. Have you found the Battletrap pair of Legends? They feel anomalous for the line in a very good way, like something from a theoretical fourth chapter of UT that never existed.

Yup. I'm mostly displeased with PotP, and am not afraid to say so! Besides for Abominus, who benefits from a Silverbolt retool *ahem* shared engineering ( ScottyP ), I find the combiner functionality a bit sloppily rolled out and unnecessary. I hate the prime master cores - I wish they were something new, and not non-transforming Headmasters. Heck, the Dinobots SHOULD HAVE BEEN Headmasters as a call back to Diaclone. But I digress.

I'm 100% with ScottyP on being mostly into the Leaders. Everything else is worth picking up in my book but disappointingly weaker than CW & TR.

How can Scotty dislike Cybertron Longrack? He's got a new head sculpt, an extendy arm, a grabby claw, and long gangly legs in bot mode. He's perfect SIR and your opinion is wrong.

...

I need to take pictures of my growing GI Joe collection in reference to the cross-over stuff. In a way, despite the cross-over events being horrible on whole, the integration of GI Joe into the military aspects of Earth confronting TFs has been really cool.

There's a lot of praise for the PotP Leader class figures but as someone who hunted down and bought the last 3 TR Leader Class figures on sight, I HATE all of the PotP leader class figures! Rodimus should've been a Voyager with no lame gimmick. Never been a BeastWars fan and that Leader class OP fits in the line of what the 1 guy was saying around the 12 minute mark around Hasbro going batcrap crazy with OP's, Bee's, etc.

Classics OP is still the placeholder on my shelf (the chrome TRU version anyway). I can't stand those "Poor man's MP figures" they've placed in the Leader class line. Megatron, Soundwave, Blaster, Seekers, etc should all be Voyager class to get my attention and money. UM, Jetfire and the Phase 6er's are the only Leaders that fit that scale IMO which why the entire PotP Leader class has completely failed opening my wallet!

That vote was trash. Hasbro has to know that most people wanted Spinister, Needlenose and Impactor (Voyager Class!) for next year and not have to choose with boring Autobot's (Wheeljack, Mirage and Tracks) that Hasbro has made about about 3 of already. Again the guy at the 12 minute mark hit the nail on the head about Hasbro constantly missing out on new characters (IDW in this case) that 3rd Party continues to advance on.

Not even just new character's. What's the bias holding Generations from finally making decent sized (legends) Reflector this lifetime????!

Overall this was a good Podcast though.

Counterpunch wrote:How can Scotty dislike Cybertron Longrack? He's got a new head sculpt, an extendy arm, a grabby claw, and long gangly legs in bot mode. He's perfect SIR and your opinion is wrong.

I thought all I said was he wasn't giraffe-like? I <3 that toy.

YoungPrime wrote:There's a lot of praise for the PotP Leader class figures but as someone who hunted down and bought the last 3 TR Leader Class figures on sight, I HATE all of the PotP leader class figures! Rodimus should've been a Voyager with no lame gimmick. Never been a BeastWars fan and that Leader class OP fits in the line of what the 1 guy was saying around the 12 minute mark around Hasbro going batcrap crazy with OP's, Bee's, etc.

Classics OP is still the placeholder on my shelf (the chrome TRU version anyway). I can't stand those "Poor man's MP figures" they've placed in the Leader class line. Megatron, Soundwave, Blaster, Seekers, etc should all be Voyager class to get my attention and money. UM, Jetfire and the Phase 6er's are the only Leaders that fit that scale IMO which why the entire PotP Leader class has completely failed opening my wallet!

That vote was trash. Hasbro has to know that most people wanted Spinister, Needlenose and Impactor (Voyager Class!) for next year and not have to choose with boring Autobot's (Wheeljack, Mirage and Tracks) that Hasbro has made about about 3 of already. Again the guy at the 12 minute mark hit the nail on the head about Hasbro constantly missing out on new characters (IDW in this case) that 3rd Party continues to advance on.

Not even just new character's. What's the bias holding Generations from finally making decent sized (legends) Reflector this lifetime????!

Overall this was a good Podcast though.

Anger aside...I think there's validity to the comment that important characters are made big, rather than proportionate to how they should scale in the line.

I don't agree about Optimus or Rodimus in the PotP line though. They are good toys/figures. I think Rodimus, despite his faults, is a toy that is long over due in the TF legacy. Optimus' only real fault is how weak his cab mode is. It needed some enclosure panels on the arms to make it more blocky.

The upcoming Optimal Optimus is kind of a failure even before release in my mind. He's a half measure that doesn't really fit in a BW collection or as intended in Generations.

Counterpunch wrote:The upcoming Optimal Optimus is kind of a failure even before release in my mind. He's a half measure that doesn't really fit in a BW collection or as intended in Generations.

I agree that he's a half measure, but that's to the extend that all of the PotP Leaders with the evolution gimmick are half measures.

I disagree with the statement that he doesn't fit into a BW or Generations collection. I think you need to elaborate on that more, because it invites comparisons to anything that doesn't fit G1 to a T, or isn't Rhinox / Rattrap / Waspinator in their slavishness.

I did just swap the horn's of Cyclonus an hr ago which isn't bad. I have 3 total. One 2.0 and two of the ones that came with Hotrod so switching the horns of at least 1 does distinguish them now.

ScottyP wrote:Have you found the Battletrap pair of Legends?

Funny you should ask, as I stopped by target today and.....







I will admit I've been a huge fan of the legends class for several years now.

I agree spot on with Counterpunches comments on PotP Prime, but not Rodimus. I put mine on ebay, just hated seeing it in the Rodimus/hot rod shelf. It's a figure that should have been amazing, but cut too many corners in design. If leader figures have to be kept to that low of a standard, it's time to abandon the class.



Also, a big thank you to all 3 for answering my question. If Netflix was to do a movie, I agree full on it should be Last Stand. If it's a series though, I'd want something new, or a MTMTE storyline. Hell, I'd even be willing to join a Kickstarter effort for either.

I liked the podcast gents, thanks! Also it was fun to get your thoughts on my question, but was that a chuckle I heard over my username? If so, I'm hurt, ok, no I am not, it's meant to be fun. I actually am considering sprucing up some characters with repro labels when I buy a set for Fort Max, who I somehow missed the sticker sheet on and managed to toss it with the box. From the current running trilogy theme, I was curious if there is any overall recommendation?
Man, 90s TF stuff, the mention of Inferno made me recall owning that toy and some dragonfly beast wars character as well, who I bought from KB Toys on sale. Loved that Inferno, he generally menanced my Joes. But for me, the toy I played with most, Beast Wars Megatron. The transformation followed the show (or vice versa) that just immersed you further into the show then I recall being with earlier TF cartoons. That and it was fun to drawl out the yessss.
Also, as stated elsewhere, your podcast here is what got me reading the MTMTE comics and I love and hate you all for it, because that can lead to one deep rabbit hole of reading to do. That just leads me to say I enjoy hearing the comic reviews and increases my enjoyment of them when I can see whay it is you talked about.
So, now that I am done gushing, here is where I disagree slightly with common sentiment, I haven't had to much problem with the toy line so far as I get it in hand. But that could simply be me not having such a deep toy box to pull from collection wise. But, I do think for the most part the legends class in this line is simply killing it.
Also if I recall, rippersnapper is no longer a terrorist, he is a ground attack specialist.

megatronus wrote:I disagree with the statement that he doesn't fit into a BW or Generations collection. I think you need to elaborate on that more, because it invites comparisons to anything that doesn't fit G1 to a T, or isn't Rhinox / Rattrap / Waspinator in their slavishness.

Well, first off on this figure, I'm looking at it as a whole. The whole package of Primal to Optimal Optimus.

The smaller Primal figure, in turning into anything other than a gorilla deviates from the whole evolution example set by Optimus and Rodimus. There is no sound Beast Wars referencing in it in the same way that Orion becomes Optimus and Hot Rod becomes Rodimus. There is interesting correlation established and interesting references by having a Primal figure in black and red; and somehow making reference to the surfboard aspects of TM Primal. It isn't the same thing as the other Leader Evolutions and misses too many important aspects of Primal's history to be a Beast Wars update in line with others that we've gotten in the past.

As a Generations style character, I'm a bit more forgiving, but only if we look at this solely as Optimal Optimus. Instead we have this whole Primal package with all its faults. By comparison, the Generations line has been pretty faithful in holding the line on replicating old, origin designs for characters. Accepting that everyone is a headmaster or powermaster...or whatever, the Generations line has brought about some great re-creations of old standbys. If Optimal Optimus was a Powermaster or Headmaster, I'd see no issue with it at this point. Have his head component go into the various gorilla and bot mode heads of the larger figure and then ride in the obvious cockpit for the vehicles. Instead, this half-measure of the inner robot exists...not being a gorilla (which should have been an EASY design feat).

The whole presentation of design and engineering could have been better here. Compared to the other evolution figures, this one isn't even playing the same game.

Counterpunch wrote:...

On the base Optimal Optimus not turning into a gorilla: his alt-mode is Cybertronian. So you have the DofP playability (which many do not have access too, I know) but more importantly I don't think his alt mode needs to be a gorilla when the power-up suit / evolution gimmick also features the gorilla. For me, that box is already checked when you consider the set as a whole.

On following the trend set by Optimus & Rodimus, it's hard to see how, functionally, an Optimus Primal evolution figure would do that. Have a gorilla integrate into another gorilla? There isn't a vehicular addition to a smaller gorilla that "makes sense." I would say the departure from the prior two evolution Leaders presents a positive development: the power-up portion of the gimmick isn't relying on the smaller figure, because the 'suit' has its own gorilla alt mode. That's a plus!

If your critique was that they could have achieved this by switching things around, with Optimus turning into a gorilla and the Optimal power-up suit turning into a jet a la the original toy, I could get behind that. But the critique as you argue it here doesn't resonate with me.

The design of Leader Primal kind of throws my belief that the fan vote it came from was predetermined into the garbage. Why? Because the inner robot makes it look like they didn't know how to make this work.

I personally like what they did because it's new, but I can see being disappointed if you either wanted a more faithful update or something that parallels the design theory implemented by OP and Rodimus. It does neither.

This is exactly why (not really) I voted for Deathsaurus!

Acesmcgee wrote:I liked the podcast gents, thanks! Also it was fun to get your thoughts on my question, but was that a chuckle I heard over my username? If so, I'm hurt, ok, no I am not, it's meant to be fun. I actually am considering sprucing up some characters with repro labels when I buy a set for Fort Max, who I somehow missed the sticker sheet on and managed to toss it with the box. From the current running trilogy theme, I was curious if there is any overall recommendation?

Reprolabel sets?

TR: Full Tilt
Overlord
Black Shadow
Topspin
Twintwist
Sixshot
Blitzwing
Mindwipe

CW: Protectabots
Combaticons
Aerialbots
Magnus

Are all ones that I'd recommend no matter what. I like a lot of others but they aren't necessary like these are.

Also, as stated elsewhere, your podcast here is what got me reading the MTMTE comics and I love and hate you all for it, because that can lead to one deep rabbit hole of reading to do. That just leads me to say I enjoy hearing the comic reviews and increases my enjoyment of them when I can see whay it is you talked about.

I know I wasn't on this episode, but I can speak for the others as to how much this kind of feedback means.

Counterpunch wrote:I know I wasn't on this episode, but I can speak for the others as to how much this kind of feedback means.

Yep, absolutely. It means we will never speak of comics again

No but seriously, it's absolutely fuel to keep it up. Hearing that we've introduced someone to a fun new part of the hobby or that we've helped someone enjoy something more fully is the highest compliment I can imagine for the show. I hope we can keep it up

All right, picked up most the sheets you recommended, can't wait to try them out, thanks.for your recommendations.

Acesmcgee wrote:All right, picked up most the sheets you recommended, can't wait to try them out, thanks.for your recommendations.

Post pics when you get them together.

Hey everyone,

I just wanted to comment on the general G1 fatigue that I'm hearing from this and other podcasts/YouTubers. I've given my origin story under a previous episode thread, so I'll summarize: I'm an old-timer that just recently came back to collecting after 30 years.

As much as I hear about G1 Fatigue, I also hear about people like me -- who just recently got back into collecting. I started because a coworker showed me CW Devastator. Relatedly, it was mentioned on the podcast that there was a jump in prices on vintage figures (i.e. Dai Atlas) in recent years. IMHO, that seems to coincide with the return of us old-timers who now have money to complete or recreate their childhood collections.

To be honest, I don't even know what Transformers would look like without G1. It's like imagining an Avengers team without Iron Man, Captain America, Thor and Hulk. Sure, it's happened before, we've had alternate line-ups, but in the end, they're not who you think of when someone says "Avengers." DC Comics has their Superman. We have Optimus Prime. Heck, Hasbro seems intent on codifying it with Evergreen.

So I understand the concerns about the brand getting stale and not showing much innovation or risk-taking... But I guess...maybe old guys like me want G1 around just a little longer? Consider the rumors of a new Optimus Prime -- I would love to own MP-10, but have either not been able to afford it or not been able to find it at a reasonable price. If a new MP Prime showed up, maybe prices on MP-10 would drop? Or, miraculously, the new Prime being reasonably priced from the start? In either case, I see it as a potential opportunity for me to fill in a gap. Similarly, while I'm not thrilled about some of the design choices, I'm very glad I can get an MP Prowl now via MP-17+. See, all of this new G1 TF product means a chance for me, who missed out on so much of this, to fill gaps and complete my collection. Maybe we're more of that 20% "older younger oldest youngest second cousin" consumer segment Hasbro mentioned in their most recent report and will continue to fuel G1 product.

Then again, maybe we'll be sated soon enough and leave the line for new characters for you young whipper-snappers that have grown bored of your elder's tales.

Counterpunch wrote:

Acesmcgee wrote:All right, picked up most the sheets you recommended, can't wait to try them out, thanks.for your recommendations.

Post pics when you get them together.

Now I've got stipulations, geez. Yeah, no problem. I'll even do before and after shots so others can see the changes a bit better.