Brian opens this off-the-cuff Radio Free Cybertron with a blunt review of the God Ginrai reissue. He compares it with Powermaster Optimus Prime, a toy he calls “a big, ugly brick.” The news segment covers a Transformers Generation 1 Season 1 DVD box set listed in the new issue of Previews. Shortstop the Zapbot follows with a pre-recorded guide to every Robots in Disguise character seen so far, from the Autobot Brothers to Scourge. Brian closes with RFC updates, including episodes returning to the archive and the second anniversary show coming up in about three weeks.
News
Transformers G1 Season 1 DVD Box Set Listed in Previews
According to a post on alt.toys.transformers, the new issue of Previews lists a Transformers Generation 1 Season 1 DVD box set. Previews is the monthly catalog Diamond distributes to comic shops. No price was listed, but Brian has heard it could be around $80. He calls that “insane” for only 16 episodes and says Season 1 isn’t worth $80. He tells listeners to check the new Previews at their local comic shop. [Source: not found]
Toy Review: God Ginrai
Brian explains that God Ginrai is the Godmaster leader from Masterforce, a show he calls “morbidly childish.” Ginrai’s truck looks just like Optimus Prime, and Brian has never heard a good explanation why. Ginrai combines with his trailer to form Super Ginrai, then with God Bomber to form God Ginrai. Brian calls the toy a “modified doppelganger” of Powermaster Optimus Prime, and he says nobody seems sure which came first.
Brian admits Powermaster Optimus Prime has always been one of his least favorite toys. He still jumped on the reissue the moment he heard about it. He lists the upgrades over Powermaster Prime:
- retractable fists, so they don’t stick up from the trailer in truck mode
- die-cast metal on the cab’s front end
- clear plastic windows instead of stickers
- chrome, including shiny legs on the Powermaster
He thinks Ginrai is superior “pretty much in every way.” Some fans complain that the die-cast doesn’t match the plastic color, but that doesn’t bother him.
God Bomber is another story. Brian calls him a “Frankenstein’s monster of accessories” that makes a stubby truck and “a very ugly, stupid, worthless robot.” All God Bomber adds is about three inches of height, a shiny chest, static arm extensions and wings. Brian’s verdict: if you already own Powermaster Optimus Prime, skip God Ginrai, a “totally unimpressive waste of a hundred dollars.” If you want a Powermaster Prime and don’t have one, it beats paying $50 to $70 for a used loose one. Fans raised on Beast Wars or Generation 2 should “avoid it like the plague.” He calls it more a statue than a toy, and he plans a written version of the review later.
Robots in Disguise Character Guide with Shortstop the Zapbot
Shortstop the Zapbot returns with a pre-recorded rundown of the Robots in Disguise cast. He notes Fox Kids is airing it about six days a week, and he says the show has been growing on him. He stresses that it is a separate continuity from G1, Beast Wars and Beast Machines, despite the familiar names.
Shortstop’s take on Megatron, who turns into a two-headed dragon, is harsh. He calls the voice acting bad and says this Megatron is like a playground bully nobody takes seriously. Optimus Prime is now a fire truck, which Shortstop likes, since he feels G1 never had a decent fire truck. He likes Prime’s character but finds him unprofessional as a military leader. He calls the detachable battle armor gimmick “kind of lame,” though he praises the Ultra Magnus toy design.
Shortstop calls the Predacons Slapper, Gas Skunk and Darkscream the show’s comic relief, “basically the Jar Jar of this thing.” The Autobot Brothers get better marks. X-Brawn is a “yeehaw type southern guy” with good lines, and Prowl is by-the-book and well voiced. Side Burn’s running gag of chasing red sports cars lost Shortstop after the third episode. He feels it makes the military look like a joke.
Sky-Byte, the flying shark, is Shortstop’s big example of the show’s “BS factor.” He doesn’t buy a shark that flies, and he finds the haikus and the kid-version daydream too silly. He changed his mind a little when a friend laughed out loud at Sky-Byte digging up a rubber ducky. That made him realize the Predacons are there for comic relief, much like Jar Jar Binks in The Phantom Menace.
On the rest of the Autobots:
- The Spychangers, with their cloaking and billboard-jumping powers, are “actually alright.”
- Team Bullet Train is “quite cool,” a rare three-robot gestalt that combines into Rail Racer.
- T-AI, the Autobots’ hologram computer, is his biggest complaint. He calls her voice so bad he cringes every time she talks.
The Decepticons arrive when Megatron finds six Autobot stasis pods and converts them. Five scan a military rig, a tank, a helicopter, a space shuttle and a jeep. Shortstop says they are basically the Combaticons with new colors and names, led by Mega-Octane and including Ro-Tor. They combine into Ruination, Team Bullet Train’s usual opponent. Shortstop praises the show’s transformation animation. He faults Ruination’s combination, though, because hands and feet appear from nowhere, unlike Devastator in G1.
Two late arrivals round out the Autobots. Ultra Magnus wants the leadership because the Matrix chose Optimus instead of him, which Shortstop compares to Starscream and Megatron. The Build Team, which built the Autobots’ space bridge, combines into Landfill. Shortstop says they fight badly and are better at their real job. The sixth pod became Scourge, a black Optimus Prime that Shortstop says resembles the Generation 2 Prime toy. He says Scourge has “the face of the original Generation 1 Prime,” and he likes his colors, design and voice. He wishes the show used Scourge instead of Megatron sometimes.
Shortstop’s overall verdict is mixed. He’s glad Transformers is back on the air and likes the theme song and music. He wishes the show cut its sillier moments and asks for listener feedback on the Zapbots forum.
RFC Notes
Brian says more episodes are back online in the archive, with more coming once he fixes the files and HTML. RFC’s second anniversary is about three weeks away. He wants to bring listener feedback back into the show, the way he intended when RFC started two years ago. He asks for opinions on fan piracy of MP3s and pictures and on how Robots in Disguise is turning out. Send them by email or post on the RFC message board at the Allspark. He also asks what listeners want on the anniversary show, and expects plenty of requests for Transformers The Movie Part 4. Brian recommends the fan fiction Ravage 3 Bodies Evolution, which is in the archive and on the Transformers The Movie parody page at tfradio.net, with an audio version. For news between episodes, he points listeners to coldhardslag.com and transfandom.com.
Radio Free Cybertron is the world's first and oldest toy and action figure podcast — broadcasting from the heart of the Transformers fan community since October 1999. What started as a scrappy fan show has grown into an institution, with nearly 1,000 episodes and over 25 years of coverage. Every week, host Brian Kilby and the RFC crew dig into the latest Transformers news, toy reveals, collecting, and everything hitting shelves from Hasbro, Takara, and beyond. No fluff, no hype — just informed, passionate collectors who have been doing this longer than anyone else on the planet. The original. The longest running. Till all are one.
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