Hasbro is turning the BotCon 2005 in-joke Flame War into a retail figure, kicking off this May 10, 2012 Radio Free Cybertron. Brian Kilby hosts with Exvee, John DeLuna, Rob Clay, JD Church and Peter Van in a quiet post-BotCon week. Aimee reviews IDW’s free Regeneration One 80.5 and Autocracy issue 9. The show plays a Fanboy Versus clip of John Barber previewing IDW’s Decepticon and Dinobot months. The crew debates whether Regeneration One can sell beyond fans of Simon Furman’s Marvel run.
News
Flame War Becomes a Retail Figure
Hasbro is releasing a Prime deco figure named Flame War, a character created for BotCon 2005 as a nod to the alt.toys.transformers flame wars. One host laughs that the fandom’s oldest in-joke has come full circle. One host thinks Hasbro pulled the name to renew the trademark, and another expects the deco to resemble the BotCon toy. The crew compares it to Hasbro finally releasing a Big Daddy figure. [Source: not found]
RFC’s Place in Podcast History
Brian notes that RFC is the original Transformers internet radio show and one of the world’s first podcasts, and that other Transformers podcasts were inspired by it. The crew jokes that makes them third-party podcasts. They also recall the text-only, ASCII-art days of alt.toys.transformers.
Comic News: Regeneration One 80.5 and Autocracy 9
Aimee reviews IDW’s free Regeneration One 80.5 by Simon Furman and Andrew Wildman. It recaps the Marvel run, then shows Soundwave’s Decepticons rallying on a peaceful Cybertron as a coldly dismissive Optimus Prime ignores them. The Decepticons turn an orbital defense satellite on the Last Autobot and destroy him. Aimee loves Wildman’s art and is ready for issue 81. She notes 80.5 isn’t required reading, so don’t overpay on eBay. Autocracy issue 9 picks up with Orion Pax waking in a pit after Megatron’s betrayal as the Matrix finds him. Aimee gives it a solid four for its slower pace and payoff.
John Barber Interview Clip
From Fanboy Versus’ 100th episode, John Barber previews IDW’s summer. July is Decepticon month, with More Than Meets the Eye debuting the Decepticon Justice Division and Robots in Disguise bringing back Turmoil. August is Dinobot month across all the Transformers books. Action Master Grimlock stars in Regeneration One, Grimlock returns in More Than Meets the Eye, and Ironhide leads the Dinobots into Cybertron’s wilderness in Robots in Disguise. [Source: Fanboy Versus]
IDW’s Ongoing Books and Regeneration One
JD calls More Than Meets the Eye a quest story like the Odyssey and Robots in Disguise a lighter Game of Thrones-style political drama, a take John Barber agreed with. He notes Regeneration One is a 20-issue limited run, though Furman has scripted to issue 100. He worries only a fraction of the fans who asked for it will buy it. One host found 80.5’s structure forced and thinks the recap assumes knowledge of an obscure run. Others point out it is a free preview and Barber says the regular issues won’t be formatted that way. Another still likes Furman’s style and calls G2 one of the top five pieces of Transformers fiction.
Fans Project Warbot Defender and Powermaster Prime Concept
Scaleface links Fans Project’s Warbot Defender, a Powermaster-style figure in Ultra Magnus-like colors, which the crew finds cool but hard to place. One host points to line art of an unproduced Powermaster Optimus Prime with a triple-changing head on Jim Sorenson’s site. The crew wishes for a third-party Headmaster head for Powermaster Prime. [Source: Fans Project]
RFC Hangouts and Collecting Regrets
The crew wants to try Google Hangouts, perhaps once a month, after a suggestion from Diecast. They close by trading stories about overpaying for the God Ginrai reissue and other Japanese exclusives.
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.