Radio Free Cybertron’s 2019 year in review crowns Siege Commander Jetfire toy of the year and Spinister best Deluxe. Seacons before Unicron edges out HasLab Unicron for news of the year, and Apeface takes the sad trombone award. The crew scores its 2019 predictions, with Diecast going three for three. Brian launches the RFC Patreon, and the crew recaps the year in Transformers month by month.
The 2019 RFC Awards
Masterpiece: MP-43 Megatron beats MP-46 Blackarachnia in a Beast Wars-heavy year, and Brian abstains. One host calls MP-43 virtually perfect in both modes, but sold his over material and assembly worries.
Leader and up: Siege Commander Jetfire wins over Ultra Magnus and Omega Supreme. Don says Jetfire justified the new Commander class price. Chris cast the lone vote for Ultra Magnus, the Leader that best earned its price.
Voyager: Springer wins over Studio Series 38 Optimus Prime and the 35th anniversary Optimus Prime. One host calls Springer the version he has wanted for years, battle damage aside. Chris makes the case for Studio Series 38 Optimus Prime, and another host backs the cel-shaded 35th anniversary deco as proof that retail toys can do it.
Deluxe: Spinister wins over Ratchet, the Power Dashers, Chromar and Crosshairs. One host voted Chromar for its striking Sixgun redeco, and another voted Crosshairs, a toy that met his hopes.
Legends and Battle Masters: Smashdown wins over Rung and Fire Drive for its sheer novelty. The Ratbat and Rumble Micromaster set gets an honorable mention.
Engineering: Spinister beats Jetfire two to one. The crew praises the rotor that locks into a V on the robot’s back and the torso that pulls through itself.
News item of the year: Chris, Matt and Rob pick Seacons before Unicron, as Generations Selects Seacons arrived before the HasLab Unicron news. Don and Diecast vote for HasLab Unicron as the bigger story. Brian refuses to force a tie and votes for the Hasbro Pulse relaunch, so the Seacons win three to two.
Toy of the year: Siege Commander Jetfire wins, with votes from Brian, Don and Rob. Rob loves the retractable 5mm ports in the hands. Diecast picks Omega Supreme. Matt is torn between Big Powered and the Siege Rainmakers three-pack, and another host picks the Rainmakers as a set that could only exist now.
Worst application of battle damage: The Siege Seekers win, since all seven share the same damage pattern. Apeface was the runner-up, and Diecast voted for all of Siege.
Sad trombone award: Apeface takes most disappointing toy of the year, with a robot and a plane mode one host calls worse than the G1 toy. Other votes went to Big Powered, Star Convoy’s fragile chest, the Studio Series World War II Bumblebee and the Micromaster Battle Patrol. Listeners can vote in fan-choice versions of each category on RFC’s Twitter.
2019 Predictions Scorecard
Diecast goes three for three: no new movie announcements, HasLab Unicron and a sales decline for Transformers. Matt called Scorponok as the next Titan, and Rob called the G1 Optimus Prime reissue going to clearance. Don gets credit for a Transformers HasLab, even though the Cookie Monster came first. Brian’s call that there would be no more HasLab projects missed. Misses also include a Masterpiece Blaster, Masterpiece Jazz, an event-exclusive Optimus Prime trailer and Generations Selects Monstructor.
RFC Patreon Launch
Brian announces the RFC Patreon, launching January 1, 2020, at patreon.com/tfradio. The $3.99 Leaving Money on the Table tier gets a weekly podcast of the live stream’s pre-show and post-show, plus a monthly Q&A. The $6.99 Matrix Bearer tier adds early access to RFC Throwback and other non-time-sensitive shows. The Touched tier adds RFC trading cards, content votes and producer credits. Inaugural patrons who join in the first two weeks get a handwritten postcard from Brian.
2019 Month by Month
January: The 35th anniversary begins with the G1 Soundwave and Buzzsaw reissue, and Warpath and Gears join the Walmart lineup. Studio Series Leader Jetfire appears with Jet Power Optimus Prime, and BotBots color-change figures leak. Siege Prowl, Ironhide and the Galaxy Convoy-inspired Leader Optimus Prime show up in hand, and Siege’s truck mode leaks. Movie Masterpiece Jazz and Megatron are revealed, Encore Big Convoy arrives and Figure King scans preview MP-44.
February: Toy Fair brings Mirage, Impactor, Omega Supreme and Jetfire, while the 35th anniversary subline is glimpsed but kept from fan media. Generations Selects Combat Megatron and Ghostbusters crossover Ectotron sell out fast. Reaction G1 figures, Cyberverse Alpha Trion and Gnaw, Star Convoy and Armada Optimus Prime are shown. Redwing leaks through a Hasbro Pulse listing, and Hasbro Pulse relaunches as Hasbro’s online store. The new War for Cybertron animated series lands at Netflix, and a Mazinger Z versus Transformers manga appears.
March: Barricade debuts at Australia Toy Fair, along with the Sports Car Patrol. IDW details its comic reboot. Japan gets a 7-Eleven Nemesis Prime and an Atmos sneaker-store MP-10 exclusive. Beast Wars story editor Larry DiTillio dies at 79. The crew credits him and Bob Forward with ideas like sparks and protoforms, and with reaching out to fans online. The Transformers Trading Card Game Cybertron edition is announced, and BotBots Series 2 hits retail.
April: Big Powered out-of-box photos start the slide to the sad trombone award. Generations Selects Snaptrap signals the Seacons are coming, and Super Megatron is teased. MP-44 slips to August 31. Springer, Red Alert, Smashdown, Selects Smokescreen and the first Turtler images appear, and Ectotron shows up in hand.
May: Masterpiece MP-10G Ecto-35 Optimus Prime is revealed in a proton pack box. BotBots get an arcade surprise pack, and Toys R Us returns as Toys R Us Kids, with a store opening in New Jersey. Selects Redwing heads to Target, MP-46 Blackarachnia is shown, and Walmart runs a G1 reissue fan vote. Siege Wave 3 Deluxes hit retail, making the Refractor hunt stressful.
June: MP-47 Hound gets a price and date, along with the worst shield in history: its soft top. Runamuck wins the fan vote for 2020. MP-48 Lio Convoy, King Poseidon and G-Shock Nemesis Prime appear in Tokyo, and Siege Mirage’s clear plastic disappoints. Springer finally reaches Walmart, and the Ecto-35 presale sells out in an instant.
July: The crowdfunded 35th anniversary Supreme Commander Convoy box misses its goal, but the Convoy and Cybertron Optimus Prime set goes ahead. Lancer brings the first look at the Orthia combiner, and Viz announces English Transformers manga. HasLab launches Cookie Monster, then Unicron: 8,000 backers needed at $600. After an extension it ends around 11,000 to 12,000 backers. At SDCC, Hasbro shows Rung, the Ratbat Battle Squad set, Refractor, the Target Rainmakers and Micromaster sets, and Galactic Man Shockwave. Wonderfest brings the Big Convoy Matrix Buster reissue, King Poseidon and the Seacons.
August: Spinister is revealed, Siege Hot Shot impresses, and Japan’s McDonald’s offers a squirting Optimus Prime. A lucky draw Lio Convoy surfaces at a Beast Wars II anniversary event in Akihabara. Hasbro plans to remove plastic from packaging in 2020. A Fan Expo Canada Q&A blames an aging mold for the trailer missing from the reissue Optimus Prime, which the crew doubts.
September: The second wave of Selects Seacons is dated, MP-38+ Burning Convoy is revealed in the wrong colors, and Jetfire hits Walmart for $45. Chromar turns up at Toys R Us Canada, and Siege Astrotrain starts shipping. Masterpiece Bumblebee 2.0 is delayed in a year full of Masterpiece delays.
October: At NYCC, Hasbro shows the Zarak half of Scorponok and Earthrise Starscream, followed by Earthrise Optimus Prime, Wheeljack and Grapple. Astrotrain will reship in Earthrise packaging unchanged. The third Seacons wave shows Tentakil, built from Greenlight’s engineering. Unicron passes its funding goal, the 35th anniversary endcaps appear in Walmart seasonal sections and the Masterpiece Raiden project is teased.
November: Earthrise Optimus Prime’s colors change through several samples. The final toy gets painted blue hands and blue eyes. More Reaction figures are revealed, and the Super7 Def Jam Soundwave and Bump of Chicken Bumblebee sell out instantly. A Taobao leak hints at Earthrise Skylynx and a Quintesson, and MP-49 Black Convoy is revealed.
December: TakaraTomy announces the Masterpiece Raiden project. Omega Supreme sells for $20 at a Hasbro warehouse sale, and a Quintesson Invasion three-pack and the King Poseidon set are revealed. IDW announces Transformers versus The Terminator from John Barber and Alex Milne, and Rob praises the Ghostbusters crossover comic. New Earthrise listings include Runamuck, Trailbreaker, Fasttrack, Snapdragon and Doubledealer. The year ends with a $50 Walmart reissue of G1 Astrotrain that the crew calls a $35 toy at most.
The full list of 2019 news links from the show is here.
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.