The first Transformers: Robots in Disguise promo has aired on Fox Kids, and Brian Kilby plays its audio on this August 6, 2001 Radio Free Cybertron. The show premieres Saturday morning, September 8. Brian keeps his part short this week, then hands the rest of the show to Turin’s Greatest Hits. Two Cartoon Viewing Club reviews, an editorial on canon and a G2 Inferno toy review fill out the episode.
News
Transformers: Robots in Disguise Promo Airs on Fox Kids
The promo for Transformers: Robots in Disguise aired this weekend on Fox Kids, and Real Media copies are available to download. Brian says Optimus Prime has a raspy voice like Peter Cullen’s, and Megatron sounds about as expected. He likes that the promo uses the original transforming sound, calling it an olive branch to G1 fans. The series premieres Saturday morning, September 8, on Fox Kids. [Source: not found]
Sites That Don’t Suck
Part five of the series features Transformers World’s Worst. Brian keeps it brief and calls the site cool.
Dubbed Line of the Week
From the Star TV dub, a retired Formula One champion credits his success to his magical car. Brian guesses the line is a near-literal translation and calls it hokey.
Turin’s Greatest Hits
Turin hasn’t been on RFC in about nine months. Brian replays some of his best material for listeners who never heard him.
Turin’s Editorial: What Counts as Canon
An ATT thread about The Return of the Autobots drifted into what is canonical in the G1 cartoon. Some posters argued nothing can be proven, such as Sunstreaker being an Autobot or Fujiyama creating Nightbird. Turin calls that bogus. He says proof doesn’t mean zero doubt, and a claim with evidence stands until someone shows contrary evidence. Some things, like the size of Cybertron or where Optimus Prime’s trailer goes, really are open to interpretation. He also jokes that a Beast Wars Neo Stampy is the first Transformer to show a girlfriend.
Cartoon Viewing Club: A Prime Problem
Turin explains the Cartoon Viewing Club on alt.toys.transformers.classic.moderated, where fans watch and review the same G1 episode. RFC dropped its own similar plan to support it. A Prime Problem opens the Kid Rhino video re-releases, which he urges everyone to buy. Megatron builds a fake Optimus Prime to lead the Autobots into a chasm of machine-destroying crystals. Turin mocks the Autobots, who can’t tell the two Primes apart even after the fake calls Ironhide Bumblebee. He also floats a theory that Soundwave has a deadpan sense of humor. His verdict: not one of the top G1 episodes, but fun.
Turin on Critical Thinking
Turin urges students to take a semester of logic. He describes the straw man fallacy, which he has seen a lot on ATT lately. Saying Beast Wars is Transformers, he notes, is not the same as saying all real fans like Beast Wars.
Cartoon Viewing Club: City of Steel
City of Steel has a reputation as one of the worst G1 episodes, and Turin can’t argue much. The Decepticons take over New York, and Hook slices Optimus Prime into pieces. Megatron turns the city into New Cybertron, and Prime’s parts become an Alligatacon and a gun tower. Turin pokes at the Constructicons’ dialogue, Devastator speaking in the third person and Megatron getting called Megaclutz. He praises one of the series’ best physical comedy scenes. Ratchet and Ironhide blast the ceiling and drop Megatron and Soundwave through two floors. He also credits the animators for drawing Prime’s truck mode incomplete without his arm. Next up for the club is The Search for Alpha Trion.
Toy Review: G2 Inferno
Turin never owned G1 Inferno, but calls Generation 2 Inferno a fantastic toy. The fire engine mode has a hose, chrome detailing, rubber wheels, molded windshield wipers and a long extending ladder. The robot mode is big and sturdy, though the legs don’t move and the fists clip on. Inferno is armed with a handgun, a shoulder cannon and a big red water cannon. Vehicle mode rates very nice, and the robot mode and overall toy rate awesome, his highest score.
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.