Twincast / Podcast Episode #38 "Toy Un-Fair"

With Kre-O, it might be best to view them as their own iterations of the characters instead of them being any existing versions in particular.


Good news. Turns out Deluxe and Voyager aren't being renamed "Revealer" and "Powerizer" after all.


About Knock Out, here's some show pics of him for ya, for reference.





Bit of trivia about the name "Optimus Maximus". The full name of the Roman Mythology god Jupiter (Roman counterpart of the Greek god Zeus) is indeed "Jupiter Optimus Maximus" (meaning "Father God the Best and Greatest").


Good show, guys. Nice hearing from the Toy Fair coverage staff.

I used to think that TF Prime did a good job with their lighting control.

But in trying to figure out what the true colors of Bumblebee and Bulkhead are in the show, I've come to decide that they really do not.

In some scenes, Bulk looks lighter when there's light on him and even lighter still if his metallic parts are causing a glare. Then you see him next to BB who somehow gets a deeper shade of yellow when in true light.

If someone could point me towards their official character models or light range samples I would appreciate it.

Comparing the toys to the show I still can not decide what version of BB and Bulk have the most appropriate color scheme.

Dear HAsbro:

DON'T DO BLINDPACKS I am sick and tired of going to the Hot Wheels BPs and finding nothing but ripped packaging because someone was peeking to see what they were. You can do SO much better.

Great show guys. Loved the discussion about asking the tough questions at Botcon. As for the audience frowning on it, I think that might be due to the audience knowing that Hasbro isnt going to give those questions a straight answer, and maybe they feel we are wasting time by asking? Then again, I often feel that the "when are we going to get a Classics So&So?" questions are pointless, because if Hasbro doesnt reveal a figure at Botcon, they more than likely arent going to give you a straight answer about specific characters. When it comes to our kinds of questions though, Hasbro is also somewhat unwilling to reveal the details of their inner workings and the processes/decisions involved in designing, manufacturing, and distributing their products. Perhaps some in the audience would find those discussions boring and unnecessary? I dunno, I'm looking for the middle ground here.

We'd probably get more done by raising hell at the Club panel. Or at least get some better answers. Maybe if folks like us were more active/vocal/involved in the club itself, they'd be more willing to listen? Then again, I know several people who are relatively familiar with Brian and Pete and that hasn't seemed to do us much good. Maybe we should we try fixing this problem from the inside, get jobs at FunPub and start taking matters into our own hands, lol.

EDIT: The more I think about it, the more I think we should get a group of 5-10 people, go to the club panel, and when it's question time at least 5 of us get in line (in a row) and one by one ask the tough questions, each question somewhat related to the others. The first person brings up online store/server issues, asks what FunPub is doing to resolve them. Seriously, the TFCC website looks like it was made by a high school kid. Maybe that helps appeal to the younger generation, I dunno, but to me it screams "we need help in our technology department". Then someone talks about quantity/availability issues of club figures (they have to realise that if a figure in 1500 or so quantity sells out in 2 days, they could have easily sold twice as many or more). The next person asks about quality issues (aka times when we get ripped off) such as PCP's shrunken head and this year's $15 headband for Soundwave (not to mention his elongated head, which may be intentional to accomodate the headband, and IMO should therefore make the headband free).

They hype hype hype and we hope hope hope. We give them every chance in the book to do awesome shit, and they do have great ideas and often cool stuff, but mostly unwhelming when compared to the hype they built up.

I'm listening as we speak. With the exception of El Duque, I know all of you guys well in "real life" so hearing you all talk and not being able to respond is awkward, lol.

Well, BotCon isn't far away.

Counterpunch wrote:If someone could point me towards their official character models or light range samples I would appreciate it.

Here's Bumblebee's at least.

Savage wrote:(aka times when we get ripped off) such as PCP's shrunken head and this year's $15 headband for Soundwave (not to mention his elongated head, which may be intentional to accomodate the headband, and IMO should therefore make the headband free).

Correct me, as I was never able to lay my hands on P/CP, but the smaller head was done to alot room in the transformation, no?

And far as the headband, isn't that coming from somewhere else? If they were in the same packaging department, then I could see it, but I'm pretty sure that the Headband is coming seperate because it's coming from a different facility, and by that time the boxes are sealed and the baggies are pressed.

And besides, it's an add-on, no more or less so than a weapon pack or a new head is.

TS;DL...

2h+ or GTFO

This podcast has left me in a sour mood, not because it was bad by any means, but because all the negative stuff is true. Dark times lie ahead, friends.

I laughed my ass off at the notion of that remote being Optimus Maximus' mechtech weapon hahah.

EDIT: In all seriousness though, there are SO many different transformers products that all slap us in the face. I, for one, am not excited at all by bot shots or cyberverse for this reason: Stores have a finite amount of space for transformers items. Between the shit ton of cyberverse, bot shots, role play masks/weapons, and even RC cars(?!), the days of actually buying legitimate transformers seem quite numbered. Even IF real transformers do get the majority of attention back, in 5 years everything will be cyberverse-sized and come with a disgusting mechtech weapon 10 times larger than the figure itself. It will also retail for 29.99. game over man.

Just want to say nice work on ep. #38! Ijust finally got a chance to download it and as always, very entertaining!

Flashwave wrote:

Savage wrote:(aka times when we get ripped off) such as PCP's shrunken head and this year's $15 headband for Soundwave (not to mention his elongated head, which may be intentional to accomodate the headband, and IMO should therefore make the headband free).

Correct me, as I was never able to lay my hands on P/CP, but the smaller head was done to alot room in the transformation, no?

Sideswipe and Sunstreaker's heads are both twice the size of P/CP's and caused no issue with transformation of the mold. FunPub's official stance was that the blueprint showed a properly sized head, and the manufacturing company screwed it up. Which makes sense, except, when the manufacturer sent FunPub the first prototype/product sample, FunPub should have said "Wait a minute, this is not right". Instead, FunPub got their product sample, saw the problem, and decided it was no big deal.

[quote=Flashwave"]And far as the headband, isn't that coming from somewhere else? If they were in the same packaging department, then I could see it, but I'm pretty sure that the Headband is coming seperate because it's coming from a different facility, and by that time the boxes are sealed and the baggies are pressed.

And besides, it's an add-on, no more or less so than a weapon pack or a new head is.[/quote]

I'm not sure if it's coming from someone else or not, but even if it is, they could give it to us in the big bag they give you at Registration that contains your badge, comic, various other paperwork. It's just a plastic shopping sack, there is no sealing it. Granted, the boxed sets will be sealed so the headband couldnt be placed into those boxes.

As for weapon packs and new heads, those dont normally cost extra. All of my Transformers had heads and guns when they came out of their packaging. Third party add-ons don't really count here because they are OPTIONAL. They may improve the figure, but the original figure without add-ons appears perfectly normal. Soundwave's headband is the only way to make his head appear properly proportioned, therefore (to me at least) that makes it more of a requirement than an option. Regardless, there is no reason for it to cost an additional $15.