Hasbro’s BotBots Challenge lands on Brian’s and Diecast’s doorsteps: a 13-pound shipper packed with nearly every figure in the line. Siege starts reaching the crew, and Don rates Battle Master Blowpipe far above the new Micromasters while Chris calls Sideswipe solid. Paramount sets early Bumblebee screenings for December 8, and the film gets a PG-13 rating and a runtime under two hours. A cheaper toy-only release of the G-Shock Master Optimus Prime also proves Brian’s $300 guess right.
Operation Purge of the Primes
Matt used an Ollie’s coupon to clear a big haul of Power of the Primes figures for his workplace toy drive. Brian reminds listeners to drop Power of the Primes or Cyberverse toys in a Toys for Tots box.
What We Got This Week
Don found three Siege Micromaster sets and Battle Master Blowpipe at Target. Flak in the Autobot Military Patrol is basically the G1 toy, but Topshot is fiddly. The Autobot Race Car Patrol underwhelmed him so much that he is selling it below cost. He has not opened the Decepticon Air Strike Patrol. Blowpipe is his favorite, a solid partner whose gun mode holds together better than most third-party Targetmasters.
Chris got Siege Sideswipe for $15 with Walmart ship-to-store. He finds it solid at being average, with excellent joint tolerances. The weathering on the legs reads almost like brushed metal, but the chest does not lock securely in robot mode. In hand, the size bothers him less than comparison photos suggested. Skytread arrives Friday.
Brian got a BotBots Sugar Shocks pack and finally has the donut. The crew declares the donut the leader of the BotBots. He gave his Unicone to his middle daughter as a reward.
Diecast opened a Transformers Trading Card Game booster box and pulled a super-rare Nemesis Prime, which sells for about $70 on eBay. The unboxing is on RFC Reviews, and a second box is on the way. His BotBots Sugar Shocks pack had the controller as its mystery figure, plus the football. A listener named Rob found him the three Siege Battle Masters and a Micromaster set. He also got an upscaled yellow Dinobot, legends-size Arcee and Kup, Movie Masterpiece Bumblebee, Magic Square Huffer and a big upscaled Grimlock with a new right hand. Finally, he showed off Transformers emblems and decals from Taobao for his car.
Jason had nothing this week.
Matt‘s pickup this week was not Transformers.
Rob got Siege Megatron from Megalopolis Toys, a TFormers sponsor. He likes it as a solid, good-looking Megatron that hides its hollow legs. He is unsure about the battle damage and may test removing it after his review. He also likes the big G1-style sword.
This Week in History
In 1985, the Transformers episode Hoist Goes Hollywood premiered in the US. The whole crew loves it, though one host’s claim that it ranks among season two’s top five starts a debate. Chris was not quite two when it aired. His earliest Transformers memory is the Micromasters commercial jingle.
News
Black Friday: Transformers Premier Deluxe $5.99 Doorbusters
Ollie’s advertised Cogman for $5.99 on Black Friday. Diecast says liquidators are getting savvy about marketing to collectors. The crew recalls a reseller who cleared out a store’s Fortress Maximus stock. A friend of the show did the same but sold his to fans at cost. [Source: TFormers]
The BotBots Challenge
Hasbro invited Brian and Diecast to the BotBots Challenge with a tiny pair of scissors that turns out to be a BotBot. Then a 13-pound box arrived with custom packaging and a printed shipping carton. Inside are 24 single packs, eight eight-packs and 16 five-packs covering the 61-figure line. Brian opens Cranks, the pencil sharpener, and shows a TV, a baseball bat and a plant that becomes a dinosaur. He and Diecast plan to decode which blind-pack markings match which figures. Brian says BotBots could save Transformers, and another host adds the Trading Card Game as a second big boost. [Source: TFormers]
Bumblebee Early Screenings Set for December 8
Tickets are on Fandango and AMC for one-night screenings two weeks before release. Brian and Diecast plan to go and may record a mini-cast afterward. Chris’s nearest showing is a $20 IMAX ticket across Nashville. [Source: Variety]
Go-Bots #1 and Star Trek vs. Transformers #2
Tom Scioli’s Go-Bots #1 is out, and Brian loves it, noting the story has nothing to do with the old cartoon. Rob likes it so far but found Optimus Prime #25, the end of the IDW run, the bigger read this week. Brian likes Star Trek vs. Transformers #2 less than the first issue but is hooked. Rob praises how well the Filmation art style is matched.
Transformers x G-Shock Master Optimus Prime To See Lower Cost Release
A Takara Tomy Mall version without the watch will cost about 16,000 yen, versus about 29,000 yen with it. Brian’s guess of about $300 for the full set was right. Chris adds that several standard G-Shock models fit inside, far cheaper than the exclusive watch. [Source: TFormers]
Transformers Bumblebee Film Rating and Runtime Revealed
Bumblebee is rated PG-13 only for sequences of sci-fi action, and it runs just under two hours. Chris sees both as positive signs of a tighter movie than the last few. The crew worries about opening against Aquaman, Mary Poppins and Into the Spider-Verse. Brian has heard early buzz that the film is good. [Source: TFormers]
What’s on TFormers
TFormers has Chris’s mini-gallery of the BotBots Challenge invitation, Jack’s review of Siege Optimus Prime and Rob’s unboxing of Siege Megatron.
RFC on Roku
Brian is fixing the RFC Roku channel, which stopped getting new episodes. He has about 300 video episodes of RFC ready to load once it works.
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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