BotCon’s official Twitter account called out Transformers knockoffs and “blatant IP stealing,” and the crew digs into what third-party toys mean for BotCon and Hasbro. JD Church hosts while Brian is on vacation, joined by Exvee, Peter, John DeLuna and Aimee. The news covers The Hub’s weak ratings, glued heads on some Dark of the Moon Leader Ironhide figures and Shia LaBeouf leaving the movie series. iGear’s Impactor, a G2 Mirage mockup and a green BAPE Optimus Prime also get attention. RFC and Captured Prey name their BotCon contest winner. Rob Springer closes the show with a pre-recorded Twitter Theater.
News
Jetwing Optimus Prime Hits Australia First
TakaraTomy’s Dark of the Moon Jetwing Optimus Prime has been released in Australia. The crew is puzzled by the timing, noting the movie itself premieres first in Moscow. One host compares it to retailers striking separate deals for Masterpiece Ultra Magnus years ago. The set adds a jet pack of guns and wings to Optimus, which sets off a long joke about Prime harvesting parts from his own Autobots. [Source: TFW2005 forums]
TFormers Giving Away Dark of the Moon Games
Peter explains that TFormers is giving away both the Autobots and Decepticons versions of the Dark of the Moon game for Nintendo DS. A second contest, for the Nintendo 3DS Stealth Force Edition, runs Friday through Sunday. [Source: TFormers]
Transformers Collectors’ Club Waspinator Contest
The Transformers Collectors’ Club is running a contest for the Beast Wars complete series box set. Club members must write a Waspinator acceptance speech, with text entries only. One host jokes that fans should flood the inbox with MP3s of their Waspinator voices anyway. Another complains that the $40 club membership costs almost as much as the set itself. The crew suggests Brian should enter. [Source: not found]
Discovery is weighing a revision of The Hub’s value because the network isn’t earning what was hoped. One article puts its full-day audience at around 23,000 viewers. The crew says Transformers Prime has had only one new episode in about two months. Exvee is “almost diplomatic” about My Little Pony’s dedicated fanbase. The crew blames limited availability, digital-tier pricing and no HD feed on major providers. They argue Hasbro overestimated its brands and needed a steady weekly schedule of new episodes. They recall Hasbro Studios’ Jeff Kline telling them Prime got only a year of lead time when CGI shows usually get more. Moving Prime between time slots, they warn, could kill it with kids. [Source: Deadline]
Some Leader Ironhide Heads Are Glued in Place
Some Dark of the Moon Leader Ironhide figures have their heads glued so they can’t turn. The crew understands it as a production fix for head problems, affecting only some units. One host jokes about a “mad guy on the line” gluing Ironhide heads and trimming Crankcase’s fingers. Crankcase’s long center claws were cut down on later releases and the hands were eventually remolded. The crew wishes someone had asked Hasbro about it at BotCon. [Source: TFormers]
Shia LaBeouf Is Done With Transformers
Shia LaBeouf says Dark of the Moon is his last Transformers film and suggested the series would be rebooted. The crew expects Michael Bay is done too, and says Dark of the Moon is only about two weeks away. They note the IMAX version has no extra footage and that the 3D is worth seeing. One host recalls seeing the first movie four times in its first 24 hours. [Source: RTÉ]
Target Coupons for Dark of the Moon Figures
Target has printable coupons for $3 off Dark of the Moon Voyagers and $10 off Leaders. The crew notes the timing works for Target’s exclusive Voyager Starscream and Ratchet. One host wants Leadfoot for his beer gut, dog and removable sunglasses. [Source: Seibertron]
G2 Mirage Mockup Revealed
New pictures show a G2 Mirage mockup that first appeared in the Transformers Vault book. The crew clarifies that Hasbro made and spray-painted it at the time, in the same vein as Tiger Stripe Grimlock and Desert Ramjet. One host says he’d love the color scheme on Classics Mirage. Another says Reprolabels has pushed him into restoration and customizing. He is hunting for high-strength hydrogen peroxide to whiten yellowed toys. [Source: not found]
A Bathing Ape, a Japanese clothing brand, is offering an exclusive green G1 Optimus Prime alongside its shirts. One host suggests a Megatron head swap to make a G1-style Dark of the Moon Megatron. The chat hated the idea. He defends the Dark of the Moon Voyager Megatron as a good figure. [Source: TFormers]
iGear Impactor Copies Warpath, and the Crew Loves It
iGear’s upcoming Impactor borrows its transformation engineering from Generations Warpath. One host calls it the best of both worlds of things the crew usually hates, and is saving up for it. The figure is expected to include Marvel and IDW heads as part of a Wreckers set. Another host was more impressed when he thought the engineering was original. The talk turns to alternate heads: Warpath’s built-in Hardhead head, Lugnut’s mystery head and the Terrordive-mold Space Case coming to Target. [Source: TFW2005]
This Day in Transformers History
Exvee reports that on June 16, 2009, Shout! Factory released The Transformers: The Complete First Season 25th Anniversary Edition on DVD. The crew jokes about how many G1 Season 1 sets exist. They ask where the Beast Machines and Robots in Disguise sets are. [Source: TFormers]
From the Chat
John DeLuna reports that few people in the chat get The Hub. Those who do mostly DVR Prime and ignore the rest of the channel. The chat loved the Camo Prime and hated the Megatron idea. It also speculated about a fourth movie, asking whether its robots should look more G1 or more like Transformers Prime.
BotCon Contest Winner
JD announces KRSerpia as the winner of the RFC and Captured Prey BotCon Twitter contest, picked mostly at random. The prize is $75. JD thanks Captured Prey and everyone who tweeted and retweeted.
Aimee reports a light week, since the Dark of the Moon trade paperback is already out. The single issues are worth buying for Convergence, a short story by John Barber that is not in the trade. Its second half arrives this week. Heart of Darkness #4 is due next week. [Source: Transformers Wiki]
Chris McFeely picks G1 Ironfist, inspired by BotCon 2011’s Animated Ironfist exclusive. A year ago the article would have only described his toy. Now it covers his roles in Last Stand of the Wreckers and the Transformers Collectors’ Club story Wings of Honor. [Source: Transformers Wiki]
Topic: BotCon Takes on Knockoffs
On Monday, June 13, BotCon tweeted that it was “very disappointed” by knockoffs and “blatant IP stealing,” saying it “cheapens the hobby.” John DeLuna reads the exchange that followed. BotCon first said “there is no gray here,” then said add-ons are a gray area but a copied G1 toy is not. It ended by changing the subject to character art.
The crew notes that Fun Publications licenses the Transformers name from Hasbro but is not Hasbro. JD argues that Hasbro’s hands-off approach to add-ons could backfire on BotCon’s custom sets. Exvee points to a kit for building last year’s customizing-class G2 Sideswipe from cast parts. John says the real one sold for at least $500. One host notes a company may make a trailer for the BotCon Motormaster. Another host says demand for Laser Optimus Prime rose after a trailer add-on was shown at BotCon. The crew recalls BotCon asking fans to stop casting the Shattered Glass Jazz head. TFSource devoted about half its BotCon booth to third-party products. The crew contrasts Hasbro’s silence with TakaraTomy giving Japanese retailers lists of third-party items not to carry. [Source: not found]
Twitter Theater: Transformers 2010 Commercial
Rob Springer, now working nights, sends in Twitter Theater pre-recorded. This week’s pick is a TakaraTomy commercial for Transformers 2010. Helicopters carry a dead Convoy across a cheering city while one kid yells “Convoy!” Rob says it shows what traditional-looking Transformers might look like in live action. He jokes that the name Convoy sounds like there should be a bunch of them. [Source: not found]
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.