Toy World reveals the combined mode of its third-party Throttlebots, and the crew loves the look but says the Goldbug-on-the-back design blows the homage. TFCon brings Fans Project’s surprise Lost Exo Realm Dinobots, starting with Columpio. Leader Class Jetfire preorders crash Toys R Us, and the unreleased G2 ATB Megatron sells for $2,700. A toy industry editorial suggests Age of Extinction toys are underperforming while Generations sells. Rob Springer weighs in on the new Robots in Disguise cartoon.
News
Toy World Throttlebots Combiner Revealed
Toy World revealed the combined mode of its third-party Throttlebots. Wideload is now a larger Hummer-style torso, and Goldbug attaches to the back. The crew agrees the combiner and individual figures look great. But as Matt puts it, the homage is blown, since the original combined like a puzzle with all six. Don is buying the set, slowly. [Source: not found]
Fans Project’s Lost Exo Realm Columpio
Fans Project surprised everyone at TFCon with a new line of Diaclone-inspired Dinobots, starting with Columpio, a not-Sludge. He comes with a small pilot figure, and the TFCon version adds metallic paint and gold chrome. Columpio is due in October, with the rest following into next year. One host prefers these to the pricier Masterpiece-scale options. Another notes that the side dinosaur legs just hang there. [Source: not found]
Leader Class Jetfire Preorders Crash Toys R Us
Leader Class Jetfire went up for preorder at Toys R Us, and the site struggled all day. Two hosts had PayPal orders canceled, and one had to call to place his order by phone. [Source: not found]
G2 ATB Megatron Sells for $2,700
The unreleased G2 ATB Megatron from the Kenner prototype auctions sold for $2,700. Brian has always wanted it, but not at that price. One host would rather pay $10 for the box and buy the Korean release. [Source: not found]
Is Age of Extinction Underperforming at Retail?
An editorial on the state of the toy business in 2014 suggests Transformers movie toys are underperforming in the US. The crew sees Generations movie figures selling while first-wave movie toys clog shelves. One host suggests Hasbro just take Paramount’s check and skip most movie toys. [Source: not found]
New Age of Extinction Toy Photos
New promotional shots show Snarl, Hot Shot and a concept-style Bumblebee. The crew wants Snarl, but Hot Shot looks terrible. A Japanese five-pack of premium-colored Dinobots oddly leaves out Snarl. A Generations Leader Bumblebee also turns out to be a stripped-down repaint of the Dark of the Moon Leader. [Source: not found]
Takara’s Mysterious Optimus Prime Prototype
A Takara Tomy Optimus Prime prototype has fans guessing whether it transforms or is a statue. The crew suspects a lightly articulated, non-transforming figure, given its oversized feet and display base. [Source: not found]
Kre-O Elite Optimus Prime
Photos show the Kre-O Elite Optimus Prime with long limbs on a standard torso. Brian loves Kreons but says this one looks like Optimus on stilts. [Source: not found]
SDCC 2014 Hasbro Panel Next Week
Hasbro’s San Diego Comic-Con panel is Thursday, July 24, with news that did not make BotCon. The crew wonders how much longer Hasbro will invest in BotCon, though Brian believes Hasbro values the fan relations. [Source: not found]
More TFCon Reveals
TFCon’s attendee exclusive is Pestilence, a recolor of KFC’s Iron Paw. Brian is wary after the shoddy build of KFC’s Bad Bat. Car Crash, a not-G2 Breakdown, has a beautiful vehicle mode. Fans Project’s Function series showed Apeface, Highbrow and Hardhead in videos that have since gone private. [Source: not found]
Salmoore Repaint and a Wreck-Gar
The third-party Salmoore gets the green-and-black repaint Don predicted, and the mold is also becoming a Wreck-Gar. The crew thinks the spikes suit Wreck-Gar even better. [Source: not found]
Too Many Third-Party Dinobots
Mechaform showed 3D renders of its own not-Dinobots, and fans urged them to stop. The crew agrees the market is oversaturated, and mismatched scales make mixing brands impossible. [Source: not found]
$32,000 on Transformers Is Not That Much
Kotaku profiled a collector in China who has spent $32,000 on Transformers. Brian says plenty of collectors have spent far more, including people on the show. [Source: not found]
Q and A with Rob Springer
Bumblebee360 asks what Rob thinks of the new Robots in Disguise cartoon. Rob knows that Bumblebee leads, Sideswipe and Fixit appear, a Dinobot joins and Will Friedle voices Bumblebee. He compares the early backlash to Animated, which turned out well. He just hopes the show is well written, noting that Prime succeeded on its characters.
RFC Announcements
Blip.tv dropped the show’s iTunes video feed, so Brian will build one manually. The Transformersdom blog is getting a review scale. The crew also asks listeners whether it is pronounced Mania King or Maniac King.
What We Got This Week
Diecast picked up the third-party Kronos, a not-Jetfire, and has a video review coming to the YouTube channel. He says it is heavier than Scoria.
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.