First looks at the Transformers Collectors’ Club Figure Subscription Service figures arrived this week, and Brian Kilby says he is buying it no matter the price. On this August 16, 2012 Radio Free Cybertron, the TFormers.com News Desk also covers Linkin Park’s gold Soundwave and Fall of Cybertron’s August 21 launch. Aimee Morgan, back from Auto Assembly, reviews Regeneration One #82 and Robots in Disguise #8. Transformers Rewind revisits the Beast Wars episode “The Low Road.”
News
TFormers.com News Desk
Peter Van and JD Church host the TFormers.com News Desk.
First Looks at the Club Figure Subscription Service
The Transformers Club Facebook page showed Breakdown, Scourge and Circuit from the Figure Subscription Service. Ultra Mammoth is the first figure, and sign-ups were due to open within days. One host plans to subscribe and sell Ultra Mammoth, since he already has the Scourge version. [Source: Transformers Collectors’ Club]
Takara Tomy APS-01 Striker Optimus Prime
Takara Tomy’s Asia Premium Series APS-01 Striker Optimus Prime is a Revenge of the Fallen redeco. It has a bigger shield and gun, metallic paint, chrome parts, special packaging and a bonus weapon. [Source: not found]
iGear Mini Warriors Not-Brawn and Not-Cosmos
iGear showed official images of Mini Warriors 03 Hench, a not-Brawn, and Mini Warriors 04 UFO, a not-Cosmos, shipping in September. Hench includes both a toy-style head and a show-style head. [Source: not found]
G2 Kre-O Devastator
A G2 repaint of the Kre-O Devastator is coming before the original even hits stores. One host isn’t a G2 fan and will take the green one. [Source: not found]
Linkin Park Limited Edition Soundwave
Linkin Park updated its homepage with official looks at its Hasbro collaboration, a gold-painted Soundwave with Laserbeak, Buzzsaw and Ravage. It is limited to 2,000 units and sold through Suru and comic and hobby shops. It is billed as a new mold, but the hosts say it looks like the original single-door Soundwave mold. They also point out the cassettes’ parts are mixed up in the official photos. [Source: Linkin Park]
Transformers: Fall of Cybertron Launches August 21
Transformers: Fall of Cybertron releases August 21, and IDW’s eight-issue digital prequel comic starts today. One host played the demo and remapped the transform button off the analog stick, which helped a lot. He plans to buy the game. [Source: TFormers]
Not Ironhide, Not Ratchet and Metallic Sixshot
TFormers posted better photos of third-party not-Ironhide and not-Ratchet figures, and one host wants them despite himself. In-hand images also surfaced of the Asian exclusive metallic G1 Sixshot reissue, which one host says costs about five times too much. He thinks the chrome suits Sixshot, unlike the gold paint added to Predaking. [Source: TFormers]
Rob Springer’s RFC RTM1 and Crazy Steve
Brian recommends this week’s episode of Rob Springer’s YouTube show. Rob covers ads and clippings, including original BotCon ads, posted by Crazy Steve on his Facebook page, Roboplastic Apocalypse.
G.I. Joe and Transformers Subscription Services
The G.I. Joe subscription service went up at $300 for 13 figures. Brian can’t justify it, though he wants Big Boa. He will buy the Transformers service no matter what, mainly for Ultra Mammoth. Another host has lost interest after waiting so long, citing the stress-marking Laser Prime mold behind Scourge. He may join the club for Depth Charge instead. Someone suggested Fans Project’s Menasor set as a better buy, though at about $50 per limb it will cost about the same. RFC’s Facebook page also passed 1,000 fans.
This Week in Comics
Aimee reminds listeners that the Autocracy trade and Classics UK Volume 3 are out. The Fall of Cybertron digital tie-in by John Barber and Dheeraj Verma arrives this month for 99 cents. Rage of the Dinobots follows in November. In Regeneration One #82, signed by the whole creative team, Megatron is back to being crazy. The Wreckers are in a dire spot, and the issue reveals what Megatron did to Ratchet. She says #85 will have the big payoff. In Robots in Disguise #8, Ironhide leads the Dinobots into the wilderness after a strange signal, while Bumblebee deals with Starscream and Metalhawk. She recommends both.
Transformers Rewind: The Low Road
The Rewind recap covers “The Low Road,” where Tarantulas infects Rhinox with an energon discharge virus. The Maximals then fight the Predacons for the cure, and Rhinox saves the day after eating too many beans. One host admits he was a Beast Wars bandwagon fan and thinks the episode is just bad. Another host had forgotten the episode and found it funny. Rob Clay calls it solid. He praises Beast Wars for using A and B stories and giving every character something to do.
Auto Assembly Recap
Aimee says Auto Assembly moved to the Hilton and drew about 720 attendees, 200 more than last year. Highlights included Paul Eiding and Michael Bell’s live commentary on the 1986 movie, which she missed while talking with Townsend Coleman for two hours. She also enjoyed karaoke, a geeks versus creators quiz and seeing Simon Furman in one of her shirts. She says the event is more intimate than BotCon, with no fees for autographs.
Rescue Bots Review: Shake Up and Rescue Boy
Aimee and Nicole Hale review two Rescue Bots episodes. In “Shake Up,” Frankie films the bots for a school video while Chief Burns’s jukebox accidentally sets off earthquakes. Heatwave saves Frankie in a cave-in, and Chase tries to learn human humor. In “Rescue Boy,” Cody gets a protective badge from Doc Greene and starts playing superhero. He learns that with great power comes great responsibility. Both praise Chief Burns acting like a real father.
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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