ElevenLabs is licensing Hasbro’s Transformers characters for commercial AI voice use — and the RFC crew is not entirely sold on it. Also this week: Siege Greenlight is back and up for pre-order, Missing Link Ratchet pre-orders open Friday, and Matt finally has his Haslab Liokaiser. Episode 990 is a full one.
Radio Free Cybertron 988 – Dare to Be Disappointed
Brian put a deposit on the Stern Pinball Transformers: More Than Meets the Eye machine before the official reveal. Liokaiser is shipping, The Movie is headed back to theaters in 4K, a reformatted soundtrack is on the way, and Commander Class Thunderwing just got confirmed with the full Mega Pretender gimmick. Episode 988 has a lot going on.
Radio Free Cybertron 986 – Safety First
The officially licensed Safety Megatron is real, it’s available now through Botcon, and Brian already bought two. Plus: Missing Link Ultra Magnus earns a near-perfect review, a Studio Series 86 Rodimus Prime listing is confirmed, and Bingo Toy’s Strafe arrives with a Computron hand the size of a Deluxe figure.
History on the Fives: The Lost Episodes – 1: More than We Missed, Part 1
The crew of History on the Fives works through five weeks of Transformers history spanning January 1st through February 7th, covering anniversaries from 1923 all the way to 2023. Along the way: the death of G1 composer Ichiro Mizuki, and the passing of voice actor Milt Jamin. The panel digs into the G2 Dreadwing and Smokejumper Japan exclusive, the UK Marvel Legacy of Unicron storyline, the Headmasters finale two-parter and the consultant who killed Ultra Magnus, and the first recorded fandom use of the term “G1.” On the comics side, the IDW license expiration gets its first airing and the Target: 2006 trade paperback sparks a discussion of how the UK Marvel comic kept the story moving between US issues. Toy releases covered include the Downtown comedy duo Cerebros set, the Encore Devastator anime color version, and a full slate of Takara Tomy January 2013 releases. The episode closes on Beast Wars and the February Headmasters entries.