Episode #193 "Eulogy" is available directly and in our RSS Feed, and should appear on iTunes, Google Play, and Stitcher Radio within 24 to 48 hours of when you see this news post.
We kick off the show with comics discussion, and while it gets truncated a bit since we're polite guests, we do spend some time chatting about Optimus Prime #15. With Onyx Prime bearing down on Cybertron, the crew ponders what the upcoming round of issues for "The Falling" might hold. We also take some time to dive into the book's namesake character and the actual development he receives in the course of this issue. All of that can be heard about within, plus Scoop ruining everything.
While the mainline announcements from Takara Tomy are now incredibly unexciting, the Masterpiece line-up looks like it may be continuing unfettered with the announcement of Beast Wars MP-34S Shadow Panter. Tune in to hear what we think of this, with possibly surprising universal agreement that Tigatron as a mere recolor isn't a step we'd like to see taken. If you're unfamiliar with the origins of this deco, be sure to check out the Seibertron.com gallery of D-7 Shadow Panther while you listen in.
News broke last week about potential and/or actual Toys 'R' Us store closings in the US. But what does it mean? Well, obviously, millenials have now successfully killed another retailer, go us! it could mean several things, and if our anecdotes about different experiences within the store these days is any indication, your mileage may vary on how applicable our discussion is to you. Is this a case of capital starvation? Should we give up and blame the scalpers for buying too many things from them even though that's pretty darn counter-intuitive? Maybe Hasbro, no, Mattel is to blame! We try to keep things above board unlike this paragraph, and let us know how your local TRU seems to be faring by replying to this post on our Energon Pub Forums.
You may be wondering why we've called the episode what we have, since "eulogy" isn't exactly a word that brings up happy memories. Some hard times have been afoot, and Seibertron is brave enough to share some powerful content which we use to segue into our special topic for this episode. We take a look into the influence our parents and family members have had in shaping our continued love and participation in this hobby and community. It's not all tears, but be warned (seriously) that you might need the tissue box for some of this one.
Our thanks again go out to Kevin from Unicron.com for coming on to participate in this discussion. He tells a more lighthearted story during this part of the show with a twist you won't see coming, so be sure to check it out!
After that we move on to our first Listener Question of the episode from Sabrblade, who asks:
Sabrblade wrote:Do you feel that the overall quality of mainstream Transformers fiction (e.g. - the most accessible-to-everyone stuff, like the cartoons and films) has objectively diminished over the years, or do you feel that some of the newer fiction is actually more along the same level as some of the older stuff and that is it just a dual case of "We're adults now, so we're not as easy to please as we were when we were children" and "We're nostalgic to the older stuff because we're more familiar with it than we are with the newer stuff"?
Or is it a little of both?
Or do you think the quality varies depending on things like the creators, or the networks (like, Cartoon Network having a say on RID's content vs. Discovery Family's say on Rescue Bots's content), or the target demographic, etc.?
After that, we take a second Listener question from Ironhidensh who asks:
You may be surprised to hear that it's not all just about Power of the Primes in our responses to this one! Thanks to both Sabrblade and Ironhidensh for the questions, and be sure to post yours in the Ask The Twincast thread.Ironhidensh wrote:Are the forced gimmicks hurting more than they are helping recent lines?
Bragging Rights herald the coming of the end of another episode, and eventually we do get there. Tune in to see what we're finding in stores and online. Some super recent finds are sure to be very good news for fans of Robots in Disguise, so with that in mind don't forget to share your Sightings with other local collectors through one or both of our Sightings tool and the Local Sightings Forums.
Join us on the Energon Pub Forums to discuss this episode, and look out for hopefully one more episode featuring 300% more discussion on Lost Light #13 before Toy Fair!
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