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Welcome to the latest episode of the Seibertron.com Twincast / Podcast! This episode features your host ScottyP, plus Megatronus, Counterpunch, and xRotorstomx - listen in as we discuss the latest news, toys, and more.

Episode #159 “Imperfect Specks" is available directly and in our RSS Feed, and should appear on iTunes and Stitcher Radio within 24 to 48 hours of when you see this news post.

After a moment of solemnity, we kick off episode 159 in earnest with a special Black Friday topic: what would the Twincast crew like to see on sale this Black Friday? Our answers vary - and we're sure yours do too. Please post your own Black Friday aspirations in the forum thread below, and visit Seibertron.com for roundups of all the best Black Friday deals.



Things then move on to Robots in Disguise - Season 3 of the popular RID cartoon has hit the airwaves. We embark on a robust discussion of the first 3 episodes, which hark back to TF:Prime in a big way. What does the podcast think of the relic hunters theme, and its recycling of older character models?



Time for an RID listener question from Seibertron.com member and all around great guy, Sabrblade. To paraphrase his words: any thoughts on the notion of RID season 3's old-fashioned route of "toys first, then media appearances" for the new characters instead of the more recent trend of "media first, then toys?"



We use Sabrblade's question to segue into the recently revealed RID deluxe and legion, including Soundwave, Blurr, Twinferno, and many more. Yes, yes, we know - ScottyP was right about that new RID deluxe Starscream. Do these reveals keep the crew in anticipation, or are they a let down? There's only one way to find out.



Stop! Comics time. TAAO is on the docket, and we continue to enjoy the crossover potential of this series. Between Windblade, Metrotitan, and the revelation that Micronus Prime is responsible for Micro Space (this guy is really getting around the fiction these days), there's a lot to talk about. Revolution 4 has also hit the stands, and gets a rare ultra beatdown of criticism from the Twincast team. Listen in to learn why the awful art, weak villains, and overall poor story have us ready for this force-fed, unnatural crossover of pop culture properties to just end already.



MP Megatron is back in the news - as more images proliferate and we learn more about this figure, the more we (or at least, predictably, Megatronus) salivate. ScottyP has an interesting theory: might the upcoming Masterpiece Megatron be a remold of MP Shockwave? Wild speculation ensues.



After a false start earlier in the episode, we're back to MP32 Optimus Primal. Counterpunch walks us through the joys of this figure, which heightens our expectations for the upcoming Masterpiece Cheetor. Have you gotten your Primal yet? Let us know your thoughts in the thread below. "Make bananas great again."



Bragging Rights. Pure and simple. As we gear up for a good old fashioned Black Friday smackdown, what have we gotten to sate our appetite for converting robots in the meantime?

I want to see Masterpiece Shockwave, Ultra Magnus, and Star Saber, all under $100 from somewhere. Wouldn't mind to see Fort Max around $90 either.

D-Maximus_Prime wrote:I'm hoping for a CW Computron markdown to come up. The amazon price went right back up into the $90's this week after that markdown to $64 that I passed on, and I hope they go back down.

Also, really hoping Wave 2 deluxes are stocked for Black Friday and so forth. I visited the local stores tonight and there are still no wave 2 anything in this area. Hope this show up again.

It went as far down as $64??? Damn, I would have bought it at that price...

I bet we'll see some Black Friday markdown. Add that to the wish list.

D-Maximus_Prime wrote:

megatronus wrote:

D-Maximus_Prime wrote:I'm hoping for a CW Computron markdown to come up. The amazon price went right back up into the $90's this week after that markdown to $64 that I passed on, and I hope they go back down.

Also, really hoping Wave 2 deluxes are stocked for Black Friday and so forth. I visited the local stores tonight and there are still no wave 2 anything in this area. Hope this show up again.

It went as far down as $64??? Damn, I would have bought it at that price...

I bet we'll see some Black Friday markdown. Add that to the wish list.

Yeah, for about 2 days. Given what happened with the other sets though, I was content to wait a little longer to check it out

I'm also waiting for the Bruticus set to come down somewhere. Was real bummed to have missed the crazy $35 HTS sale. With any luck it will show up at TJ Maxx / Marshalls like the other G2 sets.

Scotty, those opening minutes were terrifying, needed, powerful, and moving. Thank you.

Rest of episode will be listened to today, but wanted to say that.
(The audio sounds a little fuzzy this time.. )

Dr Va'al wrote:Scotty, those opening minutes were terrifying, needed, powerful, and moving. Thank you.

Rest of episode will be listened to today, but wanted to say that.
(The audio sounds a little fuzzy this time.. )

Thanks Alex. I cut down the opening a good bit, it ended up being a "less is more" thing when I played it back. Have considered putting the unedited full rambling up at some point. There's even a part where I audibly almost don't hold it together ><

I think I know what happened on the audio, will get it corrected this evening. Thanks for letting me know! It's a bug in the mp3 conversion - the .wav or Audacity project sound very clean!

Dr Va'al wrote:Scotty, those opening minutes were terrifying, needed, powerful, and moving. Thank you.

Pretty damn relevant given how things have been going over the last six months up to the last weeks shockers in the real world.

ScottyP wrote:

Dr Va'al wrote:Scotty, those opening minutes were terrifying, needed, powerful, and moving. Thank you.

Rest of episode will be listened to today, but wanted to say that.
(The audio sounds a little fuzzy this time.. )

Thanks Alex. I cut down the opening a good bit, it ended up being a "less is more" thing when I played it back. Have considered putting the unedited full rambling up at some point. There's even a part where I audibly almost don't hold it together ><

Would be more than happy to listen to it, even in private, if you do.

I think I know what happened on the audio, will get it corrected this evening. Thanks for letting me know! It's a bug in the mp3 conversion - the .wav or Audacity project sound very clean!

Oh cool, will wait until then to check again!

I jumped to the forum JUST to letcha know the brown furry thing would be Grizzlor! And then Rotorstorm beat me to it in the actual cast!

Technical difficulties kept me from being able to participate in the show.

for a Black Friday sale, I'd really like TR Leader calls to be 50% off. I really want blaster, just not $45 want him.

I've been to two walmarts in as many days and they both had full cases of wave 2 deluxes for 9.88. I would have saved enough for a voyager if I had waited.

D-Maximus_Prime wrote:

RodimusConvoy13 wrote:Technical difficulties kept me from being able to participate in the show.

for a Black Friday sale, I'd really like TR Leader calls to be 50% off. I really want blaster, just not $45 want him.

I've been to two walmarts in as many days and they both had full cases of wave 2 deluxes for 9.88. I would have saved enough for a voyager if I had waited.

I've been waiting to find the wave 2 guys around here. Those deluxes are the figures that keep alluding me!

It's a shame - wave 2 is an amazing wave.

Also, Brainstorm.

megatronus wrote:

D-Maximus_Prime wrote:

RodimusConvoy13 wrote:Technical difficulties kept me from being able to participate in the show.

for a Black Friday sale, I'd really like TR Leader calls to be 50% off. I really want blaster, just not $45 want him.

I've been to two walmarts in as many days and they both had full cases of wave 2 deluxes for 9.88. I would have saved enough for a voyager if I had waited.

I've been waiting to find the wave 2 guys around here. Those deluxes are the figures that keep alluding me!

It's a shame - wave 2 is an amazing wave.

Also, Brainstorm.

I would have gushed like mad over Brainstorm if I'd been on. I love that figure.

Audio has been cleaned up. I recommend a re-download. Still a little teeny tiny bit of distortion but you probably wouldn't have even noticed had I not written about it right here.

I am not sure how this will work with aggregation sites, so if your audio sounds wonky from somewhere such as iTunes, you may want to try the direct download for this one.

So going back to my comment about the Black Friday wish list...I was TOOOTALLY mistaken I ended up getting Blue Bluestreak for super cheap ($50 w/ the coin) last year- not Silverstreak *doh*!



I still have not opened my Brainstorm -whoopsie- but of course after I bought him on the Walgreens website, sure enough he starts showing up on the shelves back in CT :/

Re-downloaded, re-listened.

yeahyeahtoystuff
let's get to comics

As I've said elsewhere, I agree with ScottyP on Micronauts. Bunn gone dun gud(unn).

I'd LOVE to see Scott's script for the issue, to clarify that splash. I really would. There are definite crossovers with the Micronauts' time traveller character, and who they may or may not be. Also, and I'll keep insisting on this point, I feel there is a lot about Puella Magi Madoka Magica in here too - Scott has said multiple time that she's a big fan of the magical girl genre and its tropes, and the darker take on it in that series is something that keeps ringing up when reading the this issue.

Counterpunch, xRotorstormx - have you considered using panel-by-panel readers? It's a way of making the comic display almost like a motion comic, letting the image show up first, then superimposing the text with a slight delay. It does what ScottyP is suggesting, but automatically.

(There some seriously interesting research on this subject, especially by Hannah Miodrag and the whole of Neil Cohn's field of research, cognitive neurolinguistics and comics-processing. I actually wrote about it in my thesis too, very marginally, in terms of image-text interplay/tension.)

Ossio is actually artisting on Revolutionaries. Do I assume you're not going to be looking at that series?



(I will hear nothing bad about Scioli's books. Nothing. )

Dr Va'al wrote:As I've said elsewhere, I agree with ScottyP on Micronauts. Bunn gone dun gud(unn).

I'd LOVE to see Scott's script for the issue, to clarify that splash. I really would. There are definite crossovers with the Micronauts' time traveller character, and who they may or may not be. Also, and I'll keep insisting on this point, I feel there is a lot about Puella Magi Madoka Magica in here too - Scott has said multiple time that she's a big fan of the magical girl genre and its tropes, and the darker take on it in that series is something that keeps ringing up when reading the this issue.

So Counterpunch has actually watched Madoka and I told him about your post. That's all I can say about that, other than based on the one episode he showed me last week I can see the darker themes thing, but not the magical girl thing. That said, it was one episode (number 3, to be exact.)

Dr Va'al wrote:Ossio is actually artisting on Revolutionaries. Do I assume you're not going to be looking at that series?

I have not subscribed to it, but that's mainly to send a message to IDW that I don't want it. I may still pick up a single cover of the first couple issues and then if those are good, I'll subscribe. If they're ok, I'll wait for the first trade and then decide again. If I can help it though (i.e. not miss anything truly relevant to this universe's ongoing plot as it relates to the Transformers) I will not be reading the book past the "giving it a quick chance" phase.

Sabrblade wrote:Had I known at the time that ya'll were waiting for the U.S. airings of the new RID episodes, I might have waited before asking the questions I asked about it, as I wasn't referring to the Scavengers (well, not Thermidor or Clawtrap, at least), but to other things from this Season 2.5 mini-arc (the new Mini-Cons, and the stuff coming in the final three episodes of this arc).

Speaking of which, yeah, this isn't Season 3. It's a six-episode mini-series that serves as an extension of Season 2, hence "Season 2.5". Season 3 is Combiner Force, which isn't coming until next year.

Gotcha, and having seen 5/6 now I can understand that more. On the Season's "number", it's inconsistent. I can tell you the guide for Cartoon Network on PS Vue (the TV service that I have) labels it as Season 3. Length aside, it feels like a third season. Very separate from the other 13 new episodes that aired this year.

Oh, and on "waiting for air" as I phrased it, this was me. I'm one of the only ones that keeps up with it. You can make fun of the others brutally for being lazy fans, they need to hear it from someone other than me anyhow