Hasbro has surprised fans with a Target-exclusive Beast Hunters Cyberverse Abominus, made up of Terrorcons. This February 6, 2013 Radio Free Cybertron also covers the first BotCon 2013 exclusive, a Machine Wars Hoist on the Generations Kup mold. Toy Fair 2013 coverage is coming this weekend. Rob and a co-host review Rage of the Dinobots #3, Spotlight: Megatron and More Than Meets the Eye #13. LadyWreck and Nicole continue their Transformers Prime retro review with Darkness Rising Part 3.
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Empty Toy Shelves
The crew finds Transformers pegs at Walmart completely bare. Don explains that stores have split their resets into two parts, and the product simply hasn’t arrived yet. He advises checking shelf tag dates to tell new tags from old fillers. At Target, one host found a new Cyberverse Breakdown battle suit and a Skyclaw jet with Legion Smokescreen, the first new items he’s seen since early January. [Source: not found]
Target-Exclusive Beast Hunters Abominus Revealed
Hasbro has revealed a Target-exclusive Cyberverse Abominus for Beast Hunters, named Blight. JD had sworn off Beast Hunters but loves Cyberverse and combiners, so he now has to buy it. The crew is glad Hasbro is surprising fans again instead of leaking everything weeks ahead. The image notes new colors for existing tooling, and Hun-Gurrr and Twin Strike are getting individual releases. Diecast in the chat says a friend found Twin Strike, so the box set may have different colors. One host wishes the team used Commanders instead of Legion figures for a taller combiner. The crew notes that 2013 is shaping up as the year of the official combiner, and Skellface shares a Shattered Glass Abominus in Computron colors that they would buy. [Source: TFormers]
First BotCon 2013 Exclusive Is Machine Wars Hoist
The first BotCon 2013 figure is Hoist on the Generations Kup mold, and Electro will reportedly use it too. One host notes the club said it wouldn’t just do modern versions of Machine Wars toys, then showed exactly that. The crew calls it a solid but plain mold and expects it to be the figure you pay big for. Don jokes that the image needs a Blue Lantern ring to look better. [Source: TFormers]
Toy Fair 2013 Coverage
RFC will stream Toy Fair coverage Sunday from about 12:30 to 4 p.m. Eastern, leading into Fanboy Versus, and probably on Saturday as well. Brian calls Toy Fair the height of the year’s Transformers enthusiasm.
Transformers 4 Is Not a Reboot
Producers again say Transformers 4 is not a reboot. The crew jokes that it may not suck without Shia LaBeouf. [Source: not found]
Review: Rage of the Dinobots #3
Rob, who has long studied drawing, says the issue-long fight between Grimlock and a female Dinobot is impossible to follow. Most panels are framed too tight, so he needed dialogue to tell that she was attacking with her tail. His co-host missed that she carried Grimlock into the air. Rob suspects the artist was rushed, since the first two issues staged fights clearly, and Grimlock has drifted further off model. He hopes the final issue gets the time it needs.
Review: Spotlight: Megatron
Nick Roche writes and draws Megatron trying to make Starscream want to be Starscream again, set between issues 13 and 14 of the previous ongoing. Rob sees Starscream treating Megatron as a parent figure, which is vaguely disturbing. The pair note a theory that Spotlights will become pack-in comics for upcoming toys, and the chase reads like a toy commercial. His co-host praises Roche’s Starscream and clear vehicle chase but finds some faces generic, with Megatron at times looking like Overlord.
Review: More Than Meets the Eye #13
The crew calls the Lost Light’s shore leave on Hedonia upbeat and hilarious, told through Swerve’s letter home. It is a set of intersecting vignettes, including the crew having to roll Ultra Magnus. Rob compares it to M*A*S*H, mixing comedy and drama. His co-host says it is the classic fun issue before the heavy plot through issue 16. The pair wish more comics were plotted like TV series.
Transformers Prime Retro Review: Darkness Rising Part 3
LadyWreck and Nicole review the third part of Darkness Rising. The kids bond with their bots, last episode’s Dark Energon-possessed surprise attacks Ratchet and Megatron returns hearing Unicron’s thoughts. Optimus takes Ratchet to an old battlefield rather than babysit, leaving Bulkhead on kid duty. Starscream captures Agent Fowler with Laserbeak’s help and tortures him with an Energon prod. The kids follow Bulkhead into danger, and Bulkhead kills a Vehicon while telling Miko to look away. Megatron raises an army of the dead to end the episode. They love Starscream’s menace and Arcee as a strong female role model.
Kre-O Micro-Changers
Brian found half of the new Kre-O Micro-Changers and loves Hook. Don has no interest in Kre-O.
RFC Announcements
RFC streams live Thursdays around 8:30 p.m. Eastern, with a chat that often breaks news. A Google+ Hangout follows the show, run by Diecast; circle RFC at tfradio.net/gplus.
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.