BotCon 2000’s $70 semi-formal dinner draws complaints, and Hasbro keeps re-releasing Beast Wars deluxes in new Fox Kids colors, on this February 4, 2000 Radio Free Cybertron. John DeLuna’s ATT Buzz argues that Hasbro now sees collectors as a market it can bank on. Goldimus Prime reviews Beast Machines Optimus Primal, and Turin’s News from Cybertron has Octane taking revenge on Texaco. A poll finds 90 percent of listeners looking forward to the new Japanese toys.
News
BotCon 2000 Dinner Priced at $70
BotCon’s prices for this year include a $70 semi-formal dinner. John DeLuna understands that the show is getting bigger and comes with exclusives, but balks at $70 for dinner. He is still paying for it. [Source: alt.toys.transformers]
More Fox Kids Repaints on the Way
Hasbro’s Fox Kids repaints keep coming, including another Rattrap and a baby blue Transmetal Rhinox, with Waspinator and Airazor likely later this year. That would leave nearly every deluxe except Terrorsaur re-released in new colors. [Source: alt.toys.transformers]
ATT Buzz
John DeLuna says ATT is dead while fans wait for new toys, so he looks back at recent news. He sees two meanings in the repaints. First, Hasbro takes collectors seriously, as BotCon showed when it provided exclusive packaging and loaned trademarked names. It now treats Transformers fans like Star Wars collectors who will buy whatever it releases, and John admits that in his case Hasbro is right.
Second, Transformers is becoming like other Hasbro lines. He compares Beast Machines to Hasbro’s Batman line, with generic packaging, toys that don’t match the show and hideous repaints.
News from Cybertron
Octane claims responsibility for wrecking Texaco’s main refinery, after taking its high-octane ad campaign as a slur on his character; Trypticon had an airtight alibi. Sixgun sues Metroplex for emancipation in Cybertronian Family Court. Sky Lynx renames himself after a major upgrade. A gag follows about Turin juggling sealed Targetmasters on a unicycle.
Zobovor’s Transformers: The Movie Outtake
Zobovor, RFC’s keeper of bloopers, sends a comic outtake of Ironhide from Transformers: The Movie.
Toy Review: Beast Machines Optimus Primal
Goldimus Prime ended up buying the whole first Maximal wave. Optimus Primal is his most realistic ape mode yet, with tech details at the neck, a molded spine, arm bones and fingernails, mostly in translucent blue with black and gold. Held to a strong light, the plastic glows like a reformatting effect. The transformation swaps arms and legs and flips the head, like Beast Machines Cheetor but not as hard.
The robot mode is stocky, with a short wide torso, long legs, short arms and a tiny head. A sliding helmet changes his expression in both modes, which Goldimus likes best. The star-throwing arm only flings the star about a foot and limits the right arm’s posing, so he uses it as a karate chop.
He scores the beast mode 8, the robot mode 7 and the gimmicks 6, for an overall 8 out of 10. He calls Primal easily worth $10.
Japanese Toy Reviews
A listener asked for Japanese toy reviews. Brian says he has already reviewed all his Japanese toys but may get Wild Ride and Super Fire Convoy. He invites John DeLuna and Turin, and listener submissions, to cover more.
New on the RFC Website
In the poll, 90 percent are looking forward to the new Japanese toys, 3 percent are not and 6 percent didn’t know Transformers come out in Japan. New on the site are John DeLuna’s Thundercracker and Sunstreaker reviews, Goldimus Prime’s Mirage review, a newbie perspective article and a new Mad Max column.
Trivia
Recent answers were Grimlock’s New Brain, one of Brian’s favorites, and City of Steel, which he calls one of the worst episodes ever made. Mop Boy and Shadow Wing were among the winners. A new clip is played.
Turin’s List
Turin’s top eight comments on Blackarachnia’s first transformation in Beast Wars had to be trimmed to two, the top one being, “They’re great!”
Closing
The show closes with the theme from Jem, which Brian calls part of the Transformers family.
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.