Matt and Diecast are back from TFCon Chicago with stories from Ron Friedman’s 1986 movie panel, where Bumblebee was once slated to die. Brian recaps Hasbro’s media roundtable, where yellowing plastic dominated the questions and Dinoking was all but confirmed. Robosen announces a smaller Elite Optimus Prime, and ReAction wave 6 includes the unreleased prototype Unicron. Plus a Leo Prime naming explainer, the Siege Jetfire reissue and big TFCon hauls, including Matt’s vintage Sixliner.

News

Elf on a Shelfwarmer Returns

RFC is going all in on Elf on a Shelfwarmer this year. Brian asks listeners to buy shelfwarmer Transformers for kids, drop them off locally and post photos with #ElfOnAShelfwarmer. There is also an Amazon wish list at tfradio.net/elf, which earns RFC no referral money.

Hasbro Media Roundtable

Brian joined Hasbro’s media roundtable with Ben from BWTF, TFU.info and others, and questions had to be submitted in advance. Most were about yellowing plastic. Hasbro says the nylon has not changed in 40 years, nobody knows why it yellows, and owners should contact customer care. Every tooling now carries an alternate head, and Titans Return Seaspray’s was a Sea Change merman. The sixth Core Class Dinobot will come from existing fiction, and Dinoking was basically confirmed. Ben from Hasbro’s brand marketing team also said fans would be very happy with the October 27 livestream.

TFCon Chicago 2022 Report

Matt sat in on Jim Sorenson and Ron Friedman’s panel on early drafts of the 1986 movie script. Friedman talks in long, fascinating tangents, and Jim covered seven slides in over an hour. Friedman said killing characters was his idea, but Hasbro told him to leave the new ones alone, and Bumblebee was once meant to die. Peter Cullen’s autograph line took about two hours, and the dealer room was jammed on Saturday. A Fans Toys Ultra Magnus billed as a model kit confused fans until Fans Toys showed it transforms.

Robosen Elite Optimus Prime

The Elite version weighs about two-thirds as much as the flagship, keeps the same servo count and has about half the battery life. It costs about $50 less than the original’s launch price. The flagship is being discontinued, so Diecast bought one from TFSource after seeing it at TFCon. A stand with speakers and Alexa integration is coming. The crew pitches a Robosen Hot Rod, G1 Bumblebee or a Megatron tank that fires Nerf darts. [Source: Robosen]

ReAction Wave 6 Includes Prototype Unicron

Stock photos of Super7’s Transformers ReAction wave 6 include the unreleased G1 prototype Unicron. One host ordered it along with the Quintesson to go with his Unicron. Diecast missed it before it sold out and badly wants one. [Source: Autobase Aichi]

Behind the Scenes on Legacy Leo Prime

Mark Maher’s behind-the-scenes post explains Leo Prime’s name. Another company holds the Convoy trademark in Japan, so TakaraTomy uses it sparingly. Brian likes the figure and plans to buy it. [Source: Instagram]

Official G1 Optimus Prime Poster

Moor Art Gallery has an official G1 Optimus Prime poster by Danny Schlitz, and the crew likes it. [Source: Moor Art Gallery]

Siege Jetfire Reissue Coming to US Retail

Don notes that the Siege Jetfire reissue is now confirmed for US retailers, after it surfaced through Hasbro Asia. The reissue list also includes the Robots in Disguise Ultra Bee combiner. [Source: not found]

What We Got This Week

Diecast got NewAge’s Skyfire before its price jumped. Magic Square’s all-new Optimus Prime 2.0 is the best-looking Optimus Prime he owns, despite sprue marks on the smokestacks. He also got Flamewar. At TFCon he picked up two versions of a third-party Megatron, Maketoys’ Rainmakers seekers including Sunstorm, and a Delta Magnus designed by his friend Jason at GetRight Robot. He also got G2 Dinobots on the Power of the Primes molds and MMC’s one-to-one Steeljaw cassette.

Matt got Core Class Bomb-Burst, which is fine for its size though the arms do not plug in. At TFCon he got a Nucleon Quest Super Convoy with sealed accessories and Superlink Shockwave, completing his set. His big buy is a vintage boxed Micromaster combiner Sixliner from ArtFire2000’s table.

Rob had nothing this week, since UPS is running late.

Brian used the strong yen to buy a boxed Japanese Blast Off from Mandarake. He also got the 2007 Toys R Us Japan promotional World’s Smallest Bumblebee, a giveaway limited to about 30 per store.

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