Radio Free Cybertron - All of our Transformers podcasts!

Tuesday isn't just for tacos anymore. A post on the official Transformers instagram account promises five weeks of Generations Selects reveals coming every Tuesday at noon Eastern time starting on August 11th, and running through September 8th. The reveals are being split up among Hasbro Pulse, Entertainment Earth, and BigBadToyStore's instagram accounts - though we'd expect the other relevant social media channels to carry the same information. This seems like it will be the official reveals of various Selects figures we've learned about through retailer datamining early this year, a list which currently includes Bugbite, Hot House, G2 Megatron, Black Roritchi, and Ratchet. One of those five figures should go up for at least preorder tomorrow after being revealed by Hasbro Pulse, but as for which one specifically, we can only wait and see. We'll also wait and see how many pictures of any or all of these five toys suddenly turn up unofficially while leakers try to strike while their material is still relevant. Thanks to all of our Patrons who are making this possible! Join our Patreon and let's make awesome stuff happen! Please support RFC by using our Amazon referral link. Canadian fans: please use this Amazon.ca referral link. UK fans: Please use this Amazon.co.uk referral link

This week: new photos of Earthrise Dirge, Ramjet, Prowl, and Ironhide! A new look at the retail version of Gigawatt. All that and more on RFC 686! Mentioned on the Show: The News Hey, Rob, did you know that TFCon is going to be in Baltimore? Takara Earthrise Dirge, Ramjet, Prowl, Ironhide Official In-Hand Images Megatron Day at GameStop - All The Rulers of Deals! Back To Future x Transformers Gigawatt Mass Market Release in October Transformers War For Cybertron Earthrise Autobot and Decepticon Art Prints Transformers Join the Battle in World of Warships Game Announced Join our Patreon and let's make awesome stuff happen! Please support RFC by using our Amazon referral link. Canadian fans: please use this Amazon.ca referral link. UK fans: Please use this Amazon.co.uk referral link

Rob's back for this August of 2020 edition talking about Siege on Netflix, and toys he wants at Walmart. Transformers, GIJOE, He-Man, and kaiju are all discussed as well as the incoming Halloween season. Also sneezing cats! Join our Patreon and let's make awesome stuff happen! Please support RFC by using our Amazon referral link. Canadian fans: please use this Amazon.ca referral link. UK fans: Please use this Amazon.co.uk referral link

This week on Radio Free Cybertron: counterfeit toys, disappointing quarterly results, an over-engineered new Masterpiece toy, Funk Pops, and Netflix Siege debuts! Mass hysteria! Mentioned on the Show: The News * Transformers Chapter One: Siege debuts on Netflix Police Nab Transformers Counterfeiters Hasbro’s Q2 Results are not strong Design Art For The New Masterpiece Starscream From Figure King Hasbro Fan Expo Exhibit Video G1 Funko Pops Are On The Way Netflix WFC Bumblebee And Elita-1 Production Samples Seen in New Stock Photos Takara Transformers Siege SG-EX Ratchet Images and Details Takara Transformers Earthrise ER EX-16 Skywarp & Thundercracker Flame Toys Windblade Furai Model Returns with a New Design Join our Patreon and let's make awesome stuff happen! Please support RFC by using our Amazon referral link. Canadian fans: please use this Amazon.ca referral link. UK fans: Please use this Amazon.co.uk referral link

This podcast is a review of TRANSFORMERS CHAPTER ONE: SIEGE (episodes 1-6), which launches on Netflix on July 30, 2020. Review Summary The series is a substantial improvement over the Machinima Transformers series that preceded it, in virtually every respect. The voice direction, animation, and story are all greatly improved. Siege does an excellent job of working within the constraints of 3D animation and creates creative reuses of character models. Where the series falls short is a problem endemic to Transformers fiction as a whole. Hasbro no longer has a consistent vision of who Optimus Prime is. Optimus Prime is best when utilized as a fatherly force of nature, there to break you out of a jam with a laugh and a bit of wisdom. In Siege, Optimus is an impotent leader unsure of himself. Prime is a fundamentally uninteresting character, making him weak does him no service. Another challenge is that this period in Cybertronian history is inherently dull. The Generation One cartoon did it best by giving you hints of what happened in the past, without laying it all out. Siege is another retelling of a period in the Transformers' history, a time that does not require much elaboration. The creative team did an admirable job with the series, but ultimately we wonder who Siege is for and what the ultimate point of the series is. As entertainment, with its pacing, it falls a bit short. As marketing, it's more than a year out of date. Siege could be served better as a 90-minute supercut leading into Earthrise, similar to Scramble City, which bridged the gap between Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers and Fight! Super Robot Lifeform Transformers 2010. If you're new to Transformers, this might be a fair starting point, but if you're a veteran fan, it just doesn't feel essential. Things we liked * Voice direction * Animation * Starscream, Megatron, and Soundblaster Things we didn't like * Optimus Prime * Pacing Thanks to Netflix for providing us early access to review the series.   Join our Patreon, and let's make awesome stuff happen! Please support RFC by using our Amazon referral link. Canadian fans: please use this Amazon.ca referral link. UK fans: Please use this Amazon.co.uk referral link

This week: All the news happened again. TCG comes to an end, as does John Warden's time on Transformers. New Earthrise, Studio Series AND Cyberverse exclusives are the on way. All that plus we break down this whole e-commerce bot fiasco. Mentioned on the Show: The News John Warden moves from Transformers to Power Rangers The Transformers TCG Comes To An End Exclusive Quintesson Pit of Judgement Box Set Revealed RFC News Desk 111 – The Second Fan First Friday Recap Earthrise Autobot Alliance Ironhide and Prowl revealed Earthrise Seeker Elite Ramjet and Dirge revealed Netflix War For Cybertron Wave 2 Second Leader Unboxing pack (ugh) Voyagers Optimus Prime and Soundwave Deluxes Impactor, Red Alert, Wheeljack, Elita-1, and Bumblebee Photo of production sample batch on Twitter Official reveals of Selects Hubcap, Exhaust, Greasepit Rotorstorm’s head was fixed. High res picture here Studio Series Leadfoot Coming Exclusively To Target Earthrise Runabout Listing Found In Target’s System – Rumored To be Another Exclusive More Cyberverse Boxsets Heading To Target Three More Transformers RED Collection Figures Discovered Join our Patreon and let's make awesome stuff happen! Please support RFC by using our Amazon referral link. Canadian fans: please use this Amazon.ca referral link. UK fans: Please use this Amazon.co.uk referral link

Everything we expected and slightly more(?) Hasbro had a quick live stream this morning, giving us our second Transformers-focused Fan First Friday. The stream went pretty quick, coming in at about 35 minutes out of its 30 minute scheduled runtime, and a lot of product announcements were included. Unfortunately the majority of it was things we already had at least some awareness of. At the start of the broadcast was an update about Rotorstorm, which they had first debuted on the previous Fan First Friday. Rotorstorm was originally seen using Spinister's head, all the while the product copy and the representatives on the first stream went out of their way to describe how it had a great IDW-inspired new headsculpt. According to the update this morning, that was an error with the previous sample, which was an early engineering pass. The mistake was corrected, and they showed off pictures of the correct new head. Along with this, a small amount of attention was paid to Maverick, which was revealed earlier this week, but no new information was revealed. A lot of the time was spent talking about the second wave of Walmart exclusive Netflix War For Cybertron figures. We're getting a complete second wave, with all price points. Including a second spoiler pack, because nobody learned the lesson fast enough the first time to be able to stop it. We don't know who will be in the new spoiler blind box, but it does appear to be a Decepticon, and the toy is noted as transforming in 34 steps. The detective work is, of course, ongoing. Voyagers include Soundwave, which is the "clean" Earthmode Soundwave we saw leaked several weeks ago. It comes with a Ravage and a remolded Laserbeak, each of which have more detailed cassette deco. The other Voyager is Optimus Prime, which will be the Earthrise robot with no trailer. Coming with it are redecoed Pteraxadon as Enerax, and Soundbarrier as Sheeldon. The two Battlemasters are meant to resemble Prime's energon axe, and an energon shield, respectively. Five more Deluxes are on the way, included redecos of Red Alert, Impactor, and Wheeljack. The assortment is also going to include an Elita-1 retool of Earthrise Arcee, featuring a robot mode with a fair degree of modifications, but a vehicle mode that's virtually identical. Finally there will be a Bumblebee retool of Cliffjumper.

This week we take a long look at Top Gun X Transformers Maverick, the new G1 characters likely to appear in Studio Series, new Cyberverse toys, and much more! Mentioned on the Show: The News RFC News Desk 110 – Top Gun x Transformers Maverick Officially Revealed Fan First Friday again RFC News Desk 108 – Transformers Reveals To Take Place At Walmart Collector Con RFC News Desk 109 – Studio Series 86 Leader Class Slag And More From Walmart More Studio Series 86 Listings Found in Walmart Datamining Join our Patreon and let's make awesome stuff happen! Please support RFC by using our Amazon referral link. Canadian fans: please use this Amazon.ca referral link. UK fans: Please use this Amazon.co.uk referral link

More Than Meets The Need For Speed Hasbro officially revealed Maverick, the Top Gun x Transformers Collaborative figure today. Maverick was previously leaked a few weeks ago, but all we got to see was a low resolution image of a boxed sample. Today's reveal comes with a ton of huge stock photos that show off the vehicle and robot modes in much more detail. Upon initial examination, it seems like Maverick may be an entirely newly designed toy. This is a first in the Collaborative series, as Ectotron reused elements from Combiner Wars Hot Spot, and Gigawatt is a remodeled Siege Sideswipe. Maverick includes a volleyball, extra hands that can hold the volleyball, and a tiny accessory motorcycle. Preorders went live at 1pm Eastern time on July 13th, for $49.99. Shipping is expected in early October. Thanks to all of our Patrons who are making this possible! Join our Patreon and let's make awesome stuff happen! Please support RFC by using our Amazon referral link. Canadian fans: please use this Amazon.ca referral link. UK fans: Please use this Amazon.co.uk referral link

All these listing finds must mean a reveal event soon! A new product listing on Walmart's website has revealed the upcoming Studio Series Leader Class Slag. Slag is the second Leader Dinobot we've learned about as part of next year's Studio Series offerings, following from the initial discovery of Grimlock several weeks ago. Like Grimlock, Slag will come with an accessory figure, in this case some variety of Daniel Witwicky. We don't know much else right now, but between this and the previously datamined Deluxe listings, we sure seem to be in store for a lot of G1 in the previously live action movie subline in 2021! Thanks to all of our Patrons who are making this possible! Join our Patreon and let's make awesome stuff happen! Please support RFC by using our Amazon referral link. Canadian fans: please use this Amazon.ca referral link. UK fans: Please use this Amazon.co.uk referral link

No, we didn't know Walmart Collector Con was a thing either. Perhaps in response to SDCC going virtual and the unavoidable changes to various plans resulting from that, Walmart is getting ready to hold their own "Walmart Collector Con" online on Friday, July 17th. The branding makes it sound like a virtual convention experience, but it's not clear whether there is going to be some sort of presentation event streamed, as will be happening during SDCC-At-Home, or if this is just a fancy way of dressing up the act of attempting a coordinated activation of a lot of new exclusive products. The Walmart page promises more than 70 exclusives, due to launch at 10am Eastern Time on the 17th, and of course Hasbro brands are among them, with Marvel, Star Wars, GI Joe, and Transformers listed. Given how the preorder launch for the Back To The Future crossover Gigawatt turned out in actual execution, we can imagine some trepidation right now in the minds of various collectors. Let's just hope that bit of history does not repeat itself next week... Thanks to all of our Patrons who are making this possible! Join our Patreon and let's make awesome stuff happen! Please support RFC by using our Amazon referral link. Canadian fans: please use this Amazon.ca referral link. UK fans: Please use this Amazon.co.uk referral link

This week: The Gigawatt debacle. We also discuss new photos of Earthrise Runamuck, Sunstreaker, and Trailbreaker, as well as Movie Masterpiece Ratchet. Mentioned on the Show: Mentioned on the show: * Earthrise Runamuck New TakaraTomy Stock Photos * MPM-11 Movie Masterpiece Ratchet New TakaraTomy Stock Photos * New Stock Photos of Earthrise Sunstreaker and Trailbreaker * RFC News Desk 107 – TakaraTomy Teaser Featuring New Masterpiece Starscream * Transformers x Back To The Future Collaboration Official Info * Studio Series Leadfoot Coming in October? * PCS Collectibles Optimus Prime, Megatron, Soundwave 9-Inch Statues * Doubledealer on Amazon Join our Patreon and let's make awesome stuff happen! Please support RFC by using our Amazon referral link. Canadian fans: please use this Amazon.ca referral link. UK fans: Please use this Amazon.co.uk referral link

Rob's back from moving with talks of unpacking Transformers and online kaiju conventions. Join our Patreon and let's make awesome stuff happen! Please support RFC by using our Amazon referral link. Canadian fans: please use this Amazon.ca referral link. UK fans: Please use this Amazon.co.uk referral link

Traditionally the 35th is the Seeker Anniversary. TakaraTomy's TF_pr Twitter account posted a silhouetted image Monday afternoon (Japan time) showing what appears very much to be a brand new Masterpiece Starscream design. For those keeping score, this will be the third, after MP-3, and its substantial remodel as MP-11 several years later. The teaser was released to coincide with the 35th anniversary of Transformers in Japan, and it sounds like the full reveal is intended to happen sometime soon. It's a good bet they would want the new reveal to be a major feature in the month's Figure King, so the online reveal should be expected to happen a little bit before that, perhaps coinciding with what would have been our SDCC weekend originally. Thanks to all of our Patrons who are making this possible! Join our Patreon and let's make awesome stuff happen! Please support RFC by using our Amazon referral link. Canadian fans: please use this Amazon.ca referral link. UK fans: Please use this Amazon.co.uk referral link

This week: Exvee has Earthrise Scorponok. Diecast has the new NOT Unicron. All the news happened. It's a packed show. Mentioned on the Show: The News * Earthrise Dirge Revealed With Leaked Sample * Generations Centurion Drone Weaponizer Pack Stock Photos * Transformers RED Collection Optimus, Megatron, And Soundwave Stock Photos * Generations Selects Tigertrack And Rotorstorm Stock Photos * Earthrise Alternate Universe Optimus Prime Official Stock Photos * RFC News Desk 105 – Fan First Friday Recap * Transformers Toys Vintage G1 Autobot Blaster Collectible Action Figure Join our Patreon and let's make awesome stuff happen! Please support RFC by using our Amazon referral link. Canadian fans: please use this Amazon.ca referral link. UK fans: Please use this Amazon.co.uk referral link