Super Fire Convoy from Takara’s Car Robots line gets a long, detailed review from Goldimus Prime on this April 28, 2000 Radio Free Cybertron. In the ATT Buzz, John DeLuna covers a $275 Supreme Cheetor auction, the last seats for the BotCon dinner and the Blue Bluestreak debate. Brian Kilby interviews Jhooks, co-founder of the World’s Worst Fanfic, about alt.toys.transformers, G1 season three and the next Transformers series. The show closes with a spoiler review of Beast Machines Endgame Part 2.
News
Supreme Cheetor Sells for $275 at Auction
The latest auction from Spooky saw a Beast Machines Supreme Cheetor go for $275. John DeLuna expects the figure to sell for under $50 at Walmart. He says people can spend their money how they like, but he will wait a month or two and pay less. [Source: alt.toys.transformers]
BotCon Dinner Seats Nearly Gone
Only 15 seats remained for the $70 BotCon dinner as of Wednesday. John thinks it will be worth the money and urges anyone undecided to hurry. [Source: not found]
ATT Buzz
John DeLuna reports a week of old-school arguments on the newsgroup, led by the Cyclonus-is-Skywarp debate. He jokes that Cyclonus is really Bombshell, scrap and a lot of duct tape. He also answers listener feedback on Blue Bluestreak. A blue Bluestreak does appear in the 1984 catalog. But John argues nobody can prove one was ever sold in Transformers packaging without a sealed specimen.
Trivia
Nobody guessed last week’s clip, from the Masterforce episode The Psionic Whirlwind. There is no clip this week. Instead, Zob Trivia asks which cartoon episode used sulfuric acid. The answer is Heavy Metal War, where Mixmaster used H2SO4 to burrow to Teletraan I.
New on the RFC Website
AlexJ33106 fills in for MadMaxMFP with a new Bully Pulpit, continuing the editorial on commercials. This is the last week of the poll on alt.toys.transformers. J. Dale’s Optimus Prime for President 2000 graphic is also linked on the homepage.
Listener Feedback
Ben Poston asks when RFC airs in Australia. Brian says the show is online all the time, usually posted around 1 p.m. Saturday his time. Listeners respond to Brian’s ATT rant, mostly in agreement. Clayton J. Reyes thinks ATT is not a lost cause yet but could become one soon. Another listener, near 30, describes flame wars with much younger posters. Brian agrees that people treat opinions as facts, but says many teenagers argue better than adults.
Toy Review: Super Fire Convoy
Goldimus Prime reviews Takara’s Car Robots Super Fire Convoy. The red fire truck has rubber tires, an extending ladder of almost two feet, and lights and sounds. The front cab becomes Fire Convoy, an eight-inch robot with chrome gold eyes. A missile-shoulder mode adds launchers and a super gauntlet. Super Fire Convoy has 18 points of articulation and a ladder bazooka that fires four missiles. Goldimus rates the fire truck 8, Fire Convoy 7, the missile mode 7 and Super Fire Convoy 8. He gives the toy 9 out of 10 overall and recommends it at about $65 shipped from ActionAce.com.
Interview: Jhooks
Brian Kilby talks with Jhooks, a Moorpark College student who works in music management. Jhooks explains how he started the World’s Worst Fanfic with Picard and Walkie, parodying a Warren Field story. He prefers the epic feel of G1 but the characters of Beast Wars. He has interviewed Bob Forward and keeps in touch with Larry DiTillio. After five or six years on alt.toys.transformers, he sees off-topic posts, self-righteous attitudes and huge signatures as its biggest problems. In the five-question segment, he gives Beast Machines a thumbs down overall. Both men prefer G1 season three for its science fiction feel and more flawed characters. Jhooks thinks Simon Furman would be the best writer for the next series.
Episode Review: Beast Machines Endgame Part 2
In the spoiler segment, Brian notes the Maximals use the Sparks’ power to hold off the Vehicons. He finds the powers a little odd in practice, with a Super Mario Bros. feel, but calls the fight scenes cool. Megatron’s new body turns out to be Optimal Optimus. By the end, everyone is out of the picture except Megatron, Optimus Primal and hundreds of Vehicon drones. Brian praises Thrust, Cheetor, Silverbolt and even Botanica. He gives the episode 8.5 out of 10.
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The RFC Mini-cast – 043: Generation 2