Photos of Masterpiece Prowl and Bluestreak have the crew ready to buy, even the ones who don’t care about Prowl. The first official photos of the Toys R Us Masterpiece Soundwave and Acid Storm are out, and a Takara reissue rumor names Star Saber, Dai Atlas and Galaxy Convoy. BotCon 2013’s Megaplex lands on the Dreadwing mold, and Hasbro’s Australian display confirms a three-faced Generations Blitzwing. Rob and Exvee review More Than Meets the Eye #14 and Spotlight: Bumblebee, and Transformers Rewind takes on Sky-Byte Saves the Day.

Brian is joined by Don, Exvee, Rob Clay and Aimee, with Diecast and Ender in the chat. Brian wants to start numbering episodes again, starting around episode 303. Paul, RFC’s unofficial continuity advisor, is confirming the count. Exvee shows off his Fans Project Function X-1. He paid retail, calls it worth it, and has pre-orders in for the next two. The crew hopes the line reaches Headmaster Juniors, Powermasters, articulated Targetmasters and the Horrorcons. Don advises Jermaine of Can-B Comics in Greensboro, who is getting into third-party, to start with City Commander or a not-minibot rather than a combiner.

News

Takara Reissue Rumor: Star Saber, Dai Atlas, Galaxy Convoy and More

A rumor making the rounds says Takara may reissue G1 Star Saber and Dai Atlas, Galaxy Force Galaxy Convoy and Wing Saber, and Beast Wars Optimus Primal. A Sports Label Air Jordan X Transformers Black Convoy is also listed. One host is surprised there’s no Victory Leo to form Victory Saber. Brian would buy Star Saber, since he’s only owned a knockoff. The crew thinks Dai Atlas got a boost from his recent candy toy, and calls him a good figure but very much late G1. Don would rather see Fire Convoy, since its mold issue affects a lot of collectors, or a Cybertron Megatron in Galvatron colors. The crew expects a reissue like this to run $150 to $200. If these sell, they think Overlord is the one everyone wants. One host adds that a Liokaiser gift set reissue would print money, since the original sells for $1,000 to $1,500. [Source: not found]

Masterpiece Prowl and Bluestreak Photos Revealed

New photos of Masterpiece Prowl and Bluestreak look gorgeous and very close to the character models. One host has already pre-ordered, and even hosts who don’t care about Prowl call it a buy. One host says Prowl’s design “turns kibble into art,” a pattern Transformers has reused for 30 years, from Jazz to movie Bumblebee. Big Bad Toy Store’s Prowl photos don’t show the shoulder launchers, so they are probably removable. Aimee likes that this Prowl’s feet look like they can actually hold him up. One host is torn between Prowl and Smokescreen and leans Smokescreen, since he was in “The Gambler.” The crew expects an e-Hobby Diaclone Bluestreak. One host will buy two of any Masterpiece Tracks, one to get signed and one to give to Tracks voice actor Michael McConnohie, who he has given Tracks figures before. Talk turns to which cars could share molds next: Inferno, Grapple and Hauler, Ratchet and Ironhide, Hoist and Trailbreaker, or Jazz and Ricochet. The crew still wants unique molds like Wheeljack, Sunstreaker and Mirage. [Source: not found]

BotCon 2013 Megaplex Uses the Dreadwing Voyager Mold

Photos of BotCon 2013’s Megaplex show him on the Prime Dreadwing Voyager mold, the rarest of the Voyager jets. One host says earlier hints that the character would be the size he should have been pointed to a Voyager jet. Another has two problems with it. It copies the original toy’s look in bare plastic colors, even though it’s no longer a three-inch figure, and it has no new head. Comments on Twitter suggest the mold arrived too late in development for a new head. One host suggests a Generation 1 Megatron head would fit with a neck adapter, and the crew expects a third-party upgrade. Brian and one other host lean pro-Fun Publications, but the crew is lukewarm. They like Strika and Obsidian, but find the Machine Wars theme nebulous. One host names 2006, 2007 and 2010 as Fun Publications’ strongest years for focused sets. [Source: not found]

Hasbro’s Australia Hobby Toy Fair Display Confirms Three-Faced Blitzwing

Hasbro’s display at the Australia Hobby Toy Fair confirms the Generations Blitzwing has three faces. His packaging bio pegs him as the Transformers Animated personality. The crew is fine with that, since nobody can name G1 Blitzwing’s personality beyond “Triple Takeover” and a few cameos. They like that the new tank mode pegs together tightly, unlike past Blitzwing toys. The Generations Springer still looks good, based on Nick Roche’s comic design, though one host finds the robot mode lean. Ender’s T-Formers post shows buckets of Kre-O at the show, but it’s hard to tell what’s in them. [Source: not found]

Walmart Listings Confirm Beast Hunters Sandstorm, Prowl and Megatron

Walmart listings confirm Beast Hunters Sandstorm and also point to a Beast Hunters Prowl and a new Megatron. One host had guessed the last unannounced Voyager would be Megatron. The prose story in the Beast Hunters instructions has Megatron disappear early, so he likely returns with a new body. Bot Shots five-packs of the Protectobots and Combaticons are also coming, and the crew likes the concept. [Source: not found]

Official Photos of Masterpiece Soundwave and Acid Storm

The first official photos of the Toys R Us Masterpiece Soundwave and Acid Storm are out. The crew calls Acid Storm “beyond gorgeous,” a toxic green much closer to the randomly colored cartoon Seeker he was based on. Don says he looks like Reptile from Mortal Kombat. Soundwave has a yellow visor, which Brian doesn’t mind, because “we’re getting it.” The crew wonders how a $75 Acid Storm will sell when Thundercracker is still easy to find, but Toys R Us has already bought it. Don wishes the Amazon Japan Sunstorm colors would come to the US. [Source: not found]

Jeff Kline Says Beast Hunters Will Be a Good Ending

Transformers Prime producer Jeff Kline says Beast Hunters will be a good ending. Brian wishes he had said a happy one. [Source: not found]

Beast Hunters Bumblebee Goes Stealth on the Show

Breaking during the show, T-Formers reports that Beast Hunters Bumblebee is getting a stealth repaint on the show. The show model will be recolored to the Shadow Strike Bumblebee colors rather than based on the new toy. The crew expects fans who want a show-accurate Beast Hunters lineup to scramble for the Shadow Strike Bumblebee they’ve ignored for six months. [Source: not found]

Comic News With Aimee

Monstrosity, the digital follow-up to Autocracy, went up the week before Emerald City Comic Con, and Aimee calls the first issue beefy. Amazon lists More Than Meets the Eye Volume 4 and a paperback Transformers Movie Collection Volume 1, previously hardcover only. Amazon also has a placeholder for a 30th Anniversary Collection with no details yet. The Art of Fall of Cybertron limited edition art book is up for pre-order at IDW Limited. A CBR interview is out too.

Comic Review: Spotlight: Bumblebee

Rob and Exvee call Spotlight: Bumblebee one of IDW’s more formulaic plots. Bumblebee gets no respect as leader until a stupidly heroic feat wins some of his troops over. The month’s theme, they say, is “Prowl is a jerk”: Prowl insists he’s in charge and says Optimus Prime never would have put up with Bumblebee doing the same. They think the formula is deliberate for a book packed with a toy, and more accessible than recent spotlights. New readers may be confused by Thundercracker’s TV-filled apartment and the space bridge plot. The art is consistent but odd, with a few late panels missing nearly all detail. The coloring is bright and saturated even at night. They call it the weakest spotlight art so far and look forward to the next two spotlights, likely Hoist and Trailcutter.

Comic Review: More Than Meets the Eye #14

More Than Meets the Eye #14 opens an arc that may run as long as eight issues, meant to read like a movie when it’s done. Chromedome probes Overlord’s mind, which Rob calls mistake number one. Overlord probes back, searching Chromedome’s memories for himself. That reveals Prowl put Overlord on the Lost Light, and that Chromedome has done unsavory work of his own. Since Chromedome’s probe of Prowl left him open to Bombshell in Robots in Disguise, the pair has wrecked things in both books. A prologue shows Overlord’s spark found in an energon mine, which hints at how modern Cybertronians are created. The issue also introduces Ununium, element 113, a number tied to James Roberts. Ununium turns the top 0.1 percent into nearly unkillable Phase Sixers, which the hosts compare to Weapon X. The issue ends with Overlord stealing the slow room’s codes and trapping Chromedome inside, where five seconds equals 30 minutes outside, as he leaves to start a slaughter. Rob and Exvee find Overlord disturbingly well written. They dread the deaths ahead, much like readers of Last Stand of the Wreckers felt about Ironfist.

Transformers Rewind: Sky-Byte Saves the Day

This week’s Rewind covers the Robots in Disguise episode “Sky-Byte Saves the Day.” Megatron has been probing Dr. Onishi, and Sky-Byte and the Predacons take hostages at the new CGA Tower to demand the O-Parts. The Predacons end up holding the tower up, and the hostages cheer Sky-Byte as a hero. One host praises Neil Kaplan as Optimus Prime and calls Sky-Byte his favorite RID character, a Hall of Fame runner-up who should get in this year. Chris McFeely notes the episode never aired in the US because of 9/11, and neither did the episode where they find Dr. Onishi’s microchip. That left US viewers wondering where the O-Parts plot came from. The dub then handles their introduction clumsily. JD Church says the whole series is people who don’t know what they’re doing, and he admits to complete apathy for it. McFeely still enjoys the inspired dub and hearing the Saban-era voice cast again. Next week’s Rewind is “Rebirth.”

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 more than 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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