Garry Chalk, voice of Optimus Primal in Beast Wars and Optimus Prime in Armada, Energon and Cybertron, joins this December 2, 2009 Radio Free Cybertron for part one of a two-part interview. The crew also reacts to the first look at the Transformers Collectors’ Club 2010 Dion figure and the UK’s giant bus Transformer prop for Revenge of the Fallen. Charl of TransformersFanfic.com and Carl Vollmer of Marvel Universe Transformed anchor a long discussion on Transformers fan fiction. Stump Monzo also makes its debut.
News
First Look at the Transformers Collectors’ Club 2010 Dion
The first glimpse of a prototype for Dion, the Transformers Collectors’ Club exclusive for 2010, surfaced this week. AllSpark called it a prototype, though one host suspects a Photoshop. Most of the crew dislikes the orange and blue color combination, but several still plan to own it. Exvee calls Universe Hot Shot the last toy he would want redone as a club freebie. Pete Sinclair posted on AllSpark that the image is a mock-up and the production toy will be modified. One theory has it based on the Japanese Henkei! Henkei! Hot Shot instead, which fixed clipping parts and added flamethrower accessories. [Source: AllSpark]
Mighty Muggs Wave 3 Hits Retail
Transformers Mighty Muggs Wave 3, with Shockwave and Jazz, is out at retail. One host really wants the Shockwave. Exvee never saw the appeal of Mighty Muggs and notes Shockwave’s round head should look like a hex bolt. The crew teases him for not getting the appeal of fun. [Source: not found]
UK Gets a Giant Bus Transformer for Revenge of the Fallen
To promote the UK DVD release of Revenge of the Fallen, a UK prop company built an enormous prop Transformer that turns into a red London bus. The crew is let down that it is a regular commuter bus, not a double-decker, and calls it a missed opportunity. One host says it has guy-in-a-suit syndrome, and others compare it to a Megazord Optimus fighting Mothra. A contest offers the chance to win one. [Source: not found]
Rob’s Black Friday at Toys R Us
Rob went to his local Toys R Us at midnight on Black Friday for animated Leaders at $20 and Universe Ultras at $12. He found a line stretching down the highway and a madhouse inside, with no Ultras left on the shelf. His girlfriend found an Ultra Silverbolt, cut to the front at the registers, and later admitted she took it out of a reseller’s cart. Rob’s epilogue: he should have gone to Big Bad Toy Store, and Walmart had plenty of Silverbolts for $11.
This Week in Transformers History
JD Church notes that “Fire in the Sky,” premiering December 8, 1984, introduced Skyfire. The crew talks about the expensive Jetfire toy and its Macross mold, and jokes that the Autobots left Skyfire buried in the ice until they needed a ride again. That leads to a debate on how many G1 Autobots are not jerks, with Huffer, Cliffjumper and the Dinobots named as offenders.
Interview: Garry Chalk, Part 1
Garry Chalk explains his name rhymes with the chalk you write on a blackboard, a nod to the chalk hills near his birthplace of Southampton, England. His family emigrated to Vancouver in 1957. He came to acting through music and theater, and has worked as a professional actor since 1978. His first cartoon was Hiawatha in Ottawa in 1981, followed by Barbie and the Rockers, G.I. Joe, He-Man and Captain N, where King Hippo was a favorite role. He did Transformers Generation 2 toy commercials before Beast Wars. He describes Optimus Primal as warm, very human and full of humor with his crew. His Armada, Energon and Cybertron Optimus Prime was closer to Peter Cullen’s take. He says dubbing from Japanese made those scripts feel clipped and constrained. He prefers voice work for the fun and speed, but loves the feedback of on-camera and stage work. He refuses gratuitously violent roles. The crew calls it one of their favorite things they have ever done, with part two next week.
News from Cybertron
Turin reports that Megatron finished his one millionth viewing of the Earth movie Tron, then joked to his troops that it was apropos given his name. The joke drew forced laughter and puzzled glances.
Stump Monzo
The first Stump Monzo question comes from Bill R., who asks for the size class names in Transformers Energon. Monzo works through them: Energon, Combat, Mega, Command, Leader, Supreme and Role Play Weapon class. Bill fails to stump Monzo. Send questions to stumpmonzo@tfradio.net or tweet @stumpmonzo.
Fan Fiction Fest: Charl of TransformersFanfic.com
Charl has run one of the oldest and largest Transformers fan fiction archives since 1996, now called Lexicon at transformersfanfic.com. It holds over 14 million words. She traces fan fiction from the alt.toys.transformers days, when Susan Theroux tracked stories and posts vanished within days. The archive moved from lexicon.tf to transformersfanfic.com after the .tf domains went into legal limbo. Lexicon now has 4,592 submissions from 457 authors. Generation 1 makes up 52%, followed by Beast Wars, Armada and Robots in Disguise. There are only 62 Michael Bay movie fan fiction submissions so far.
Fan Fiction Discussion
Brian says he has written well over a hundred pieces of fan fiction, many nominated in Rob Jung’s Trannies awards. His first story, Victory for the Wicked, went unfinished after a critic called it contrived garbage. Exvee’s favorite of his own is Tech Support, about the Action Master mainframe keeping up with the Autobots’ computer problems. The crew agrees fan fiction was bigger when there was little official fiction. They recommend Rob Powers’ The Corrosion of War Without End, M Sipher’s Phoenix War saga, Raksha, Rob Jung and Dave Van Dommelen. Brian names Ravage 3 Bodies Evolution as his favorite fanfic, so bad it is good again. The crew also credits Picard42 and Transformers World’s Worst for inventing the World’s Worst fanfic style.
Interview: Carl Vollmer of Marvel Universe Transformed
Carl Vollmer got into fan fiction around the start of Beast Wars through the Beast Wars Anonymous archive. He created Marvel Universe Transformed, a fan fiction group where the Transformers never left the Marvel Universe after their Spider-Man cameo. The group’s stories shared one continuity, with Energon creating mutants and Transformers technology shaping Marvel tech. Carl says fan fiction has gone from three networks to cable, with many smaller groups instead of one central place.
Coming Up
New Soundwave, killed last week, returns next week due to popular demand, mostly from Brian. Next week also brings the return of the RFC Holiday Buying Guide and part two of the Garry Chalk interview. The crew hopes to hit 200 Facebook fans and may give that fan an RFC bumper sticker.
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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