IDW’s All Hail Megatron 15 alternate cover, featuring Perceptor, carries text pulled straight from the TF Wiki. On this September 30, 2009 Radio Free Cybertron, Brian Kilby, Exvee, JD, John DeLuna and Rob debate what that means. Turin returns after eight years with a new News from Cybertron. The crew also picks the worst Transfailures and the best gimmicks in Transformers history, from AllSpark threads.
This Day in Transformers History
JD notes that the season two episode Enter the Nightbird premiered on this day. The crew mocks the giant ninja robot built for peace and the cliffhanger that never paid off. JD adds that Nightbird next turned up in a BotCon comic as a mass-production model. Everyone agrees the episode makes no sense, and JD rates it worse than Autobot X.
News
IDW’s All Hail Megatron 15 Cover Uses TF Wiki Text
Brian only learned yesterday that the All Hail Megatron 15 Perceptor cover uses text lifted from the TF Wiki. Under the wiki’s Creative Commons license, his reading is that the issue is now public domain. JD doubts the wiki could win any claim, since it has no official authorization from Hasbro. He calls a fight not worth it. The crew agrees it changes little, since IDW can still sell the book. Most of them take it as flattery that someone at IDW used the best Transformers resource online. [Source: not found]
RFC Twitter Theater
This week’s Twitter Theater was the Autobots Strike Oil audiobook. Brian wonders what fans whose first exposure was these audiobooks think of the rest of the fiction. He compares them to the Blackthorne G1 comics, a strange corner almost nobody visits. Rob points out that Scourge gets car-crash sound effects despite the story saying there were no Decepticon flyers nearby.
Turin Returns
Turin is back on RFC after about eight years. He was active on ATT and RFC from 1999 to 2001 and left the fandom by mid-2003. He missed Energon, Cybertron and Animated, and only saw the 2007 movie on HBO. Universe toys rekindled his interest a few months ago. He is excited that Transformers the Movie Part 4 is finally coming and plans to start writing Part 5. Brian recommended Transformers Animated, so Turin has ordered season one on DVD to review spoiler-free. He doesn’t like the Michael Bay films or the movie toys, but says it is still a great time to be a fan.
News from Cybertron
Autobot medic Ratchet is arrested for high treason for secretly treating Decepticons for countless eons. Special prosecutor Prowl says that explains why the war isn’t over, since the Decepticons have no doctors. Defense attorney Wheelie argues the Hippocratic Oath is legit, so the court must acquit.
Transfailures
An AllSpark thread on Transfailures, toys with weak transformations, gets the crew going. Brian reluctantly names Retrax, one of his favorites, plus Armada Scavenger. Another host picks Transmetal 2 Cheetor and the Beast Machines Cheetors, especially Supreme Cheetor, and the crew adds Nightscream. One host turns it around: Alternators are so hard to transform that nobody bothers, with Alternator Grimlock as the worst example. The Beast Wars Neo and Car Robots shellformers, like Big Convoy, get a mention too. Rob calls Masterpiece Grimlock one of the better Masterpieces, with more toy value than the rest.
Favorite Transformers Gimmicks
Brian loves the Duocons. John picks Minicons hands down, calling them Headmasters and Targetmasters taken further and better thought out. Other picks include Pretenders and five- or six-member combiner teams. The crew debates Scramble City against Predaking and MicroMaster combiners like Sixwing and Sixtrain. Armada Optimus Prime and Jetfire, Railracer and the Minicon combiner Perceptor come up as working combiners. Sparkling Monsterbots, Human Alliance figures and the G2 color changers round out the list.
RFC Announcements
Brian promotes a new Facebook fan page for Ravage Three Bodies Evolution by Tiger Megatron, which he calls a masterpiece. The panel is full, but RFC is starting a segment to chat with fans; email crew at tfradio.net to take part. RFC turns 10 on October 15, with voices from the past and Transformers the Movie Part 4.
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.