Takara’s Web Diver line replaces Car Robots with toys that double as video game controllers, and a photoshopped Metal Force Prime fuels another live-action movie rumor. This February 5, 2001 Radio Free Cybertron also covers BotCon Beyond making Sonar female and a Rodimus Prime clue on the Wreckers site. Thylacine2000 joins Brian Kilby to defend Galvatron, and M Sipher talks flea market finds and Hasbro versus Takara. John DeLuna finishes his Trannies ballot, and the Dutch ATT posters make peace with a song from Tony Bacala.
News
BotCon Beyond Makes Sonar Female
BotCon Beyond’s Saturday update revealed Sonar, and the bio makes her female. John DeLuna likes the twist, since most tech specs leave gender open. He hopes her characterization comes first, like Beast Wars Blackarachnia, rather than Beast Machines Blackarachnia, whom he calls a token female. [Source: BotCon Beyond]
Wreckers Site Hints at Rodimus Prime and “the Order”
Rodimus Prime’s Wreckers bio hides a private blurb, found by highlighting past the Vehicon drone silhouettes. It mentions “the Order” being destroyed and confusion over a “chosen one” surviving. John is almost certain “the Order” means the Primes and “chosen ones” means Matrix bearers like Optimus and Rodimus, not Ultra Magnus or Scourge. This is his theory. [Source: BotCon Beyond]
Takara Announces Web Diver
Takara’s next line after Car Robots is Web Diver, not a return to Brave. The $100 lead toy, Gradion, turns into a locomotive and doubles as a game console. Smaller transforming toys plug into his back and appear on a TV screen. John calls it risky for a company in financial trouble, given the TV plus $20 to $30 add-ons. He blames Takara’s marketing for the slide since Beast Wars, especially Beast Wars Neo, whose complex toys didn’t fit its five-year-old target audience. [Source: alt.toys.transformers]
Photoshopped Metal Force Prime Fuels a Live-Action Movie Rumor
Ain’t It Cool News ran a live-action Transformers movie rumor backed by a doctored photo of Metal Force Prime. John calls AICN a rumor mill and the rumor baseless. He predicts there will never be another Transformers movie, live-action or otherwise, beyond perhaps a direct-to-video release. The rumor also revived ATT’s monthly “the movie sucks” thread. John argues the movie does suck on its own merits: only Megatron gets real characterization, and Unicron wipes him out five minutes after his fight with Optimus Prime. [Source: Ain’t It Cool News]
Takara Shows Wave Rider Toys
Thylacine2000 reports first pictures, at ImageAnime.com, of a Takara line apparently called Wave Rider. The vehicles transform into weapons and then animals, with no robot mode. Some fans say it is a new Brave line rather than Transformers. He finds them clunky and plans to skip them, glad for a break from import spending. He predicts that within a week someone will call them Transformers Generation 3, TransTech or “Transformers 2001.” [Source: ImageAnime.com]
Divvy’s Peace Offering
After a flame war involving some Dutch ATT posters and a misunderstanding about RFC, Daniel “Divvy” Vink sent a message and a gift. It is Tony Bacala’s theme from last year’s Dutch convention, Netherbotcon. Brian thanks Divvy for proving he’s a good guy, and plays the song. Tony’s site is TFW2005.com.
RFC Notes
Brian is short on time this week, with about 150 comics to catch up on and fan fiction to write for Marvel Universe Transformed. A new poll asks what listeners expect from Toy Fair. It drew only four responses on its own page, so Brian plans to move it back to the homepage. The site also has a text interview with TigerMegatron.
Trivia
There is no new clip this week. Last week’s clip was from the Beast Wars II movie, with Galvatron and Gigastorm. Greg Mishansky got it exactly right, and Anthony Fitz got the characters. The clip before that, from Four Heroes Come from the Sky, the first episode of Headmasters, stumped all but one listener.
Point the Blame
Hooper X targets the G1 nostalgia trend and the “truck not monkey” crowd that dismisses anything after 1985. He blames mall chain Hot Topic for selling retro Transformers shirts as somehow underground. His point: Transformers were mass-market toys from a multinational corporation, not counterculture. Next week’s theme is “Somebody Hates Me,” and he wants hate mail.
Thylacine2000 at Vericon
In his RFC debut, Thylacine2000 reports from the first Vericon, the Harvard-Radcliffe Science Fiction Association’s convention. He and FAQ keeper Steve Stonebreaker ran a Transformers festival of G1 episodes, the movie DVD and Beast Wars, including the Agenda trilogy. Webworld earned two encores. About ten viewers made it the second-biggest video room audience, behind only Princess Mononoke on a big screen.
Toy Review: Metalike Metal Force Optimus Prime
Thylacine2000 reviews the Metalike Metal Force Optimus Prime, the shiny repaint of TimeHouse’s Metal Force Convoy statue that many fans call “Medicom Prime.” It stands just over 12 inches, doesn’t transform and looks more cartoon-accurate in hand than in photos. He calls the metallic red, silver, yellow and blue a big upgrade over the original’s dull, “milk carton white” plastic. It may be the most beautiful piece in his collection. One warning: the Autobot logo stickers are uncut and wax-thin, and easily trap air bubbles. He suggests sticker makers like DeltaStar could sell replacements.
Galvatron with Thylacine2000
Brian and Thylacine2000 argue that Galvatron is a great character. Thylacine2000 says the lunatic is a valid archetype and that Five Faces of Darkness is just too long. They count Galvatron’s planet kills, including Thrull, Torkulon and heavy damage to Jupiter. Thylacine2000 says that even badly animated, Five Faces of Darkness looks good. They praise Webworld, Burden Hardest to Bear and Dark Awakening, where Galvatron learns from his mistakes. Thylacine2000 says Galvatron was never desperate enough to bet his strategy on random artifacts, unlike Megatron.
On the toy, Thylacine2000 calls it unfairly maligned and praises its articulation. A Galvatron without his cannon is just a gray cylinder, and cannons were selling for $30 to $40. He finally completed his after ATT poster Don Celji sent him the cannon off his own Galvatron in trade. Brian paid $30 on eBay for a near-mint boxed Galvatron with working electronics.
John DeLuna’s Trannies Ballot
John finishes his ballot for the Trannies fan awards:
Best episode of the year: Beast Machines “Spark War, Part 1: The Strika,” which introduced Strika and Obsidian.
Best episode ever: Beast Wars “The Agenda, Part 3.” Best multi-part episode: The Agenda, for weaving G1, comic and Beast Wars continuity without clashes.
Best Japanese series: Car Robots, mostly for lack of competition and for God Magnus, a selfish hero obsessed with taking the Matrix from Fire Convoy. He calls Beast Wars II mediocre and Beast Wars Neo a disaster.
Transfan of the year: Robert Powers, whose essays are why John still reads ATT. Best newsgroup: alt.toys.transformers, because it is uncensored, with the Marketplace as runner-up for its flame wars. Best website: Ben Yee’s BWTF.com, with BotCon Beyond second. Best IRC channel: #ouija.
He says the fandom is dull right now. The Car Robots wave of new fans has faded, and ATT has slid into flames and off-topic posts.
Interview: M Sipher
Brian talks with M Sipher, who calls himself “a bitter crank” and has been around since before Beast Wars. He tells how he found a complete loose Minerva, with her Headmasters, at a flea market and paid $60. That same dealer had a Grand Maximus. Other finds include a complete Targetmaster Scourge, Powermaster Darkwing and a $100 Fortress Maximus.
On Hasbro versus Takara, Sipher argues Hasbro drove the big changes: the movie’s futuristic vehicles, G2, Beast Wars, Transmetals and Beast Machines. Takara, he says, engineers and paints better but followed and leaned on recolors. He calls Car Robots mediocre and too recolor-heavy, with too many exclusives. He is skeptical of fans who call Takara the source of Transformers. He prefers new characters over endless Optimus Prime and Megatron. He likes Bob Skir’s Sam & Max writing but doubts Skir and Marty Isenberg as long-range story editors for Beast Machines. He also likes the Vehicons and the Maximals’ grown-metal look.
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.