Generations Wheeljack shows up in package on this February 23, 2011 Radio Free Cybertron, and the crew agrees the Tracks retool works. Correctly transformed photos of Generations Warpath and a Dark of the Moon TV spot with the Wreckers also get a look. The crew reviews the Transformers Prime episode Scrapheap and its Scraplets. Hasbro’s push for a single unified continuity turns into a debate over whether Transformers work in prose. Twitter Theater covers LG’s Optimus Pad commercial.

Brian is joined by Exvee, John DeLuna, Bweebum, Aimee, JD Church and Rob Springer, plus Rob’s dog on camera.

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Generations Wheeljack Pictured in Package

In-package and loose pictures of Generations Wheeljack are out. The crew agrees the Tracks retool looks great, with Tracks’s missiles retooled into wrenches. One host calls it the first Wheeljack that really looks like Wheeljack. He is due in the next wave. The crew also struggles to find Perceptor, Kup and the rest of the current wave at retail. [Source: not found]

Generations Warpath Shown Correctly Transformed

New photos show Generations Warpath correctly transformed, and the crew loves it, from the Kapow and Zowie sound effects to the made-up tank mode. One host wants it repainted as Action Master Treadshot for BotCon. [Source: not found]

Dark of the Moon TV Spot Features the Wreckers

A new Dark of the Moon TV spot features the Wreckers, and one host’s wife called him to make sure he saw it. One host argues they are not the real Wreckers, and another isn’t impressed by the film’s new female lead. [Source: not found]

Dark of the Moon Thundercracker Surfaces

Pictures of a Dark of the Moon Thundercracker surfaced, and it is the Bumblebee repaint everyone expected. The crew likes the movie’s weapon-deploying Bumblebee, which looks like Stealth Force or Mech Tech, though it cares little for most movie toys. A report says the twins were cut from the film, though the crew notes that rumor appears every year. Wheelie returns with a new mode. [Source: not found]

Transformers Prime Wheeljack Preview

A preview of the next Transformers Prime episode, Con Job, features Wheeljack. The crew hopes he gets real character development and jokes that he could turn out to be a villain, like Armada’s Wheeljack. [Source: not found]

Review: Transformers Prime, Scrapheap

The crew reviews Scrapheap, the second Transformers Prime episode. They call it pretty good with great characterization, and compare the cute, metal-eating Scraplets to Star Trek’s Tribbles. Bulkhead screaming in the dark gets a big laugh. They are disappointed water does not stop the Scraplets. One host points to a plot hole: cold defeats them, yet the Autobots stand in cold space on the space bridge. Others like that cold affects Transformers, consistent with Megatron’s freezing in the 2007 movie.

Fans Project Insecticons

A chat question turns to the Fans Project Insecticons. The crew finds the molds nice but says they don’t capture the Insecticons’ essence, looking more like a Dreamwave reinterpretation.

Comics with Aimee

Aimee notes that Foundation #1 and Rising Storm #1 both arrive today, though she hasn’t received her copies. Foundation is a prequel to Defiance, and Rising Storm leads into the movie. This week’s Infestation release is Star Trek, not Transformers. The ongoing series #17 follows in two weeks.

TFWiki Spotlight

Chris McFeely spotlights the TFWiki articles for Armada’s premiere episodes, First Encounter, Metamorphosis and Base. He tracked down subtitled Micron Legend versions of all three and logged every difference from the Armada dub. He also built a gallery of the changed animation, and says some differences may surprise fans.

This Day in Transformers History

JD marks February 23, 2008, when Transformers Animated’s Sound and Fury premiered and introduced Soundwave to the Animated universe. JD didn’t like the episode, and one host can’t understand Animated Soundwave through the reverb.

Topic: Hasbro’s Unified Universe and Transformers in Prose

Exvee raises Hasbro’s new unified continuity spanning Transformers Prime, War for Cybertron and the Exodus novel. The crew asks why Hasbro wants it, and Exvee says the three already contradict each other. Suggestions include easier management now that Hasbro makes its own show, better metrics on what works and a more accessible brand. Power Rangers’ long single continuity comes up as a model.

That leads to whether Transformers work in prose. One host, a longtime fan fiction writer, argues Transformers are a visual experience that loses its punch in text. Another counters that prose should supplement the visual media with backstory and character, not recreate action. Old favorites like Omega Point and the Find Your Fate Junior books get love. The crew agrees book licensing is a low-risk win for Hasbro either way.

Twitter Theater: Optimus Pad

Rob first recaps last week’s pick, the Japanese music video for Dream Again, the Micron Legend theme. This week’s pick is LG’s commercial for its Optimus Pad tablet, a spoof of the Transformers movies credited to Michael Boy and Steven Spellburt. A movie-style Optimus fights a crude Megatron, throws him through an Apple building and crushes an apple. The crew notes the tablet sells on T-Mobile as the LG G-Slate.

Radio Free Cybertron: The Transformers Podcast

Brian Kilby

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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