A first silhouette of Masterpiece Soundwave and a wave of Asia-exclusive Generations repaints lead this May 24, 2012 Radio Free Cybertron. Brian Kilby, Exvee, Weebum and Rob Clay also praise More Than Meets the Eye #5 and break down Transformers Prime’s Ratchet and Wheeljack episode. Aimee Morgan’s Comic News covers IDW’s Dinobot month. The topic is Paramount pushing G.I. Joe: Retaliation to 2013, and why Transformers fans have it pretty good.
News
Masterpiece Soundwave Silhouette Revealed
A silhouette of Masterpiece Soundwave appeared beside Masterpiece Sideswipe, and both are so boxy that one host at first thought it was Red Alert. Brian likes that the newer, smaller Masterpieces are better engineered and come out faster. One host notes Sideswipe will be about Alternator size but pre-orders at around $160. He expects that to drop, as Big Bad Toy Store’s Sunstorm price did. Brian is glad upcoming Masterpieces like Megatron and Grimlock won’t be limited to cars, unlike Alternators and Binaltech. [Source: not found]
Transformers Prime Wave 4 Adds Vehicons
Transformers Prime Wave 4 has been reshuffled to add two Vehicons, replacing two Bumblebees, including the Shadow Strike Bumblebee. The crew wonders whether retailers pushed Hasbro to stop sending Bumblebees that sit on shelves. [Source: not found]
Rob Springer’s RFC RTM1 on YouTube
Rob Springer posted episode two of his YouTube show, RFC RTM1, and it partly inspired this week’s G.I. Joe topic. Brian says it has the feel of RFC Throwback. [Source: YouTube]
Asia-Exclusive Generations Repaints
Package photos of the Asia-market Generations exclusives are on TFormers. Deluxes include Springer from the Tomahawk mold, Swerve with the Kup head, Cliffjumper with a G1-style head and an orange Wheelie on the Jazz mold. Legends include Bluestreak, Motormaster, Thundercracker and Hoist with new weapons, and Scouts include Sandstorm, Dead End, Laserbeak and Brawl. Voyagers include Hot Spot from the Inferno mold, G2 Megatron from the Bludgeon mold and Brawn from First Edition Bulkhead with a tiny G1 head. Brian must have Wheelie and Hot Spot, and one host calls Brawn an amazing car wreck. One host notes Hasbro is putting real effort into retooled parts for the growing Asian market. [Source: TFormers]
Transformers Prime: Ratchet and Wheeljack Team Up
Rob recaps this week’s Marty Isenberg episode, in which Ratchet and Wheeljack shoot down Laserbeak and use it to plant a virus in Soundwave. Wheeljack fights Soundwave while Raf and Ratchet work the virus. Brian quotes Chris Triplett calling it a Ratchet and Wheeljack buddy-cop episode. The crew agrees Isenberg’s episodes are consistently good, even if Prime overall doesn’t grab them.
More Than Meets the Eye #5
Brian says More Than Meets the Eye #5, with Fortress Maximus waking up, wraps the virus arc in just two issues and makes him love Ratchet. He also likes Ultra Magnus teaching Tailgate the Autobot code, and calls the final page one of the best he can remember. Brian says it is either his favorite or second favorite comic, and it doesn’t need to be graded on a curve.
Comic News with Aimee Morgan
Aimee Morgan notes Amazon has listed U.S. Classics Volume 4 and More Than Meets the Eye Volume 2 for November. A UK Amazon listing shows an art book for Fall of Cybertron, which she had petitioned High Moon for. Casey Coller drew the Robots in Disguise #8 cover featuring Turmoil, and Nick Roche and James Roberts will attend Auto Assembly 2012. The August solicits make it Dinobot month. That includes a Maximum Dinobots reprint, Dinobot stories in both ongoings, a More Than Meets the Eye annual with Jimbo Salgado and Regeneration One #82.
Aimee gives Autocracy #10 four out of five stars, with Hot Rod making his own explosive choice. She gives More Than Meets the Eye #5 five out of five. She calls the Roberts and Barber ongoings the best Transformers comics in history.
Topic: G.I. Joe Retaliation Delayed, and Transformers Has It Pretty Good
Paramount pushed G.I. Joe: Retaliation from about a month out to March 2013, citing a 3D conversion. The crew suspects it is really about avoiding The Avengers. Don in the chat wonders whether Battleship’s poor box office was also a factor. The toys may hit stores anyway, and one host notes Hasbro had to issue its own statement backing Paramount. The crew says that, compared with G.I. Joe fans’ shortages and delays, Transformers fans have it good. They have multiple lines on shelves, even with too many Bumblebees. The crew doubts Hasbro’s plans for more board-game movies like Monopoly. They expect an angry Hasbro panel at JoeCon 2012.
Rescue Bots with Aimee and Nicole
Aimee Morgan and Nicole Hale preview their upcoming Rescue Bots review spots, giving the first 12 episodes two thumbs up. They say Doc Greene is evil, and their full reviews run at the Rescue Center on the Underbase.
Where Transformers Is Headed
One host thinks Transformers is declining in the U.S. without a movie, and expects a more streamlined line. Another notes Dark of the Moon’s line was far more focused than Revenge of the Fallen’s, and one host says the Hub may be hurting Hasbro’s brand. The crew wants Transformers 4 to bring entirely new robot designs. One host points out that the Dark of the Moon Deluxe Bumblebee can wear Laserbeak as wings. Brian notes he has fixed RFC’s broken podcast feeds in phone apps.
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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