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It really is like 2017 all over again, as now we have a purported leak image that's been scribbled all over to hide all but the specifically-chosen details. Released via Marco Madrys over instagram and Youtube, the image is claimed to be a first look at next year's Titan Class offering: The Ark.

The Ark has been rumored as the Titan by the he-tell-me crowd for a little while already, and that part is generally not being held in question anymore. Whether this image that's been leaked today genuinely depicts the referenced upcoming toy is however still open for debate. The image is very poor quality; we can imagine that it would have been a photo taken of a screen where the image was being displayed.

What we get to see is an aft view of the Ark itself, a Teletraan-1 console, and a shape that seems to be the Teletraan console transformed as possibly an Autobot shuttle inspired by the one seen in the finale of Beast Wars. It may be a bit obfuscated by the poor image quality, but it seems most likely that these are renders or other stages of art assets for the project, rather than photos of even a painted early prototype. In particular, Teletraan-1's console looks like it's had coloring effects applied, most noticeable on the screens. The ship itself also seems to have dark lines visible along some of the corners and edges that resemble cel-shaded CGI or fine-detail, colored lineart. The only element that looks like it might be a physical object is the shuttle-like component.

We have traditionally gotten our first look at a physical piece of the following year's Titan at NYCC in previous years. Even though that event is not happening as planned, Hasbro PulseCon is taking place in a very close timeframe, during which we expect the official reveal of Kingdom with looks at first wave toys. It's possible the Titan tease will proceed as it otherwise would have during that event, and using the shuttle that might transform into Teletraan-1 would probably be the best thing they could use as a "hint".

Less and less of Kingdom seems to remain un-ruined for the fandom. But at least we'll still probably be surprised by the last Generations Selects reveal on Tuesday...?

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This week: Matt was happy. Also: That weird possibly Volcanicus Selects repaint, Toy Fair has been delayed, we're getting a Hasbro Pulsecon apparently, and the next Siege spoiler pack has been spoiled.

Mentioned on the show

New York Toy Fair Has Been Postponed

RFC News Desk 117 – Hasbro PulseCon Announced For September 25-26

Transformers Tuesday Part 4: Generations Selects Diaclone Sunsteaker 2-Pack, Plus Red Wing Reissued

Second Netflix WFC Spoiler Pack Spoiled: It’s Nemesis Prime

RFC News Desk 116 – Ratchet And Lifeline Galactic Odyssey Collection Pack

Who’s That Generations Selects Pokemon?

 

Hasbro has officially announced Hasbro PulseCon, a 2-day virtual convention dedicated to Hasbro properties. Taking place on the 25th and 26th of September on the Hasbro Pulse YouTube channel, which has gained a ton of subscribers due to The Marketing Heaven campaign, the event will be hosted by SyFyWire's Jackie Jennings and is said to feature entertainment, music, and of course toys. Product announcements are promised for "Dungeons & Dragons, G.I. Joe, Magic: The Gathering, Power Rangers, Transformers as well as premiere partner brands Marvel, Star Wars, Ghostbusters, and more."

The press release for the event also specifies that this event will be accompanied by a series of "Convention-exclusive" items - in the case of Transformers, this means the much-anticipated Quintesson Pit of Judgment 5-pack featuring a Quintesson Judge, Prosecutor, Bailiff, and Sharkticon along with prisoner Kranix minifigure.

PulseCon is slated to feature over 50 product reveals, and given the timing making it an excellent replacement for New York Comic-Con - one of two places that tended to be home to the year's product line debut - it seems extremely likely that the first official reveal of Kingdom products will happen there. As discussed extensively in our recent Emergency Leakcast, we've been privy to the bulk of Kingdom's contents via Walmart's computer systems. On top of which, recent leaks have shown us Core class Rattrap and Deluxe class Cheetor, Blackarachnia and Warpath, and months ago we got a look at a Voyager Cyclonus which, unknown to us at the time, turned out to be a Kingdom figure.

One of the most enlightening possibilities could be a showing of the Annual Titan Chunk. A tradition of the last few NYCCs, the Hasbro design team would typically cap off a Transformers product reveal stream by showing off a piece of the next year's Titan class figure such as Trypticon's leg, Predaking's wings, Omega Supreme's tank, and most recently Lord Zarak, Scorponok's Headmaster figure. Given that the Titan class figure is one of the less solid parts of the Kingdom leak barrage, this could help to confirm or deny the rumors that the Ark itself is the Titan of 2021.

At the time of this writing the official PulseCon website hasn't yet gone live. Hopefully more information will become available at that point. The event is, for some reason, limited to North American audiences.

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Okay, that rules out Ratchet for a Transformers Tuesday. And in fact, it presents us with a total of five more exclusive sets that we didn't know would be a thing before today!

Amazon launched preorders in the US for the first War For Cybertron Galactic Odyssey set, featuring the rumored two pack of Earthrise Ratchet, and Lifeline. We'd been hearing some conflicting reports regarding the Earthrise retool of Ratchet, including that it would be a Selects release, but many of the most recent statements had pointed to come kind of two pack with a Paradron Medic deco Arcee, and that part at least has come true.

Preorder Galactic Odyssey Collection Ratchet & Lifeline here

Neither Ratchet nor Lifeline seem to present any unexpected surprises. Ratchet has a new robot head, and an added lightbar on the van roof topper, but otherwise shows little or no sign of evident mold changes. Lifeline looks like it's going to be a direct redeco of Arcee with no mold changes at all.

This set falls outside of Generations Selects and the regular Earthrise numbering, being part of a new Galactic Odyssey Collection. This series of apparent exclusives serves the purpose of chronicling the journey of the Ark after it leaves Cybertron. The product copy for this two pack, for instance, describes Ratchet visiting Paradron in search of energon, where he meets Lifeline. Whether even this much will be documented with the toys themselves is unknown, and questionable at best; much long form print material like that has been abandoned in the last couple of years in favor of making the products as internationally marketable as possible with the fewest print variations they can get away with.

It looks like there will be five Odyssey sets in all, including this one. The inside flap of the product packaging has a space map based on what collectors have been assembling bit by bit with individual retail toys so far, with five locations prominently displayed: Paradron, Biosfera, Botropolis, Dominus, and Micron. We can assume there will be loosely themed sets of figures based on each world. Biosfera, for instance, likely to include at least one beast form toy.

Amazon has the set for preorder now, with an expected release on December 1st. As of post time, the set was only available to order within the US, and how or when it might become available to international customers was unknown.

With Ratchet's status now confirmed, this does guarantee that the final two Selects reveals for Transformers Tuesdays are something that we don't know about yet, or at worst,

This week: Kingdom, New Masterpiece Starscream, more Generations Selects, the hits keep on coming.

Mentioned on the show

RFC Extra 049 – Emergency Kingdom Leakcast | Walmart Leaks All of Kingdom And Mysterious Headmasters Assortment

Transformers Kingdom Core Class Rattrap Unofficially Revealed

Kingdom Leaks Continue! Blackarachnia, Cheetor, and Warpath Photos

RFC News Desk 115 – Generations Selects Sandstorm and G2 Megatron Officially Revealed

Transformers Tuesday Part 3: Generations Selects Black Roritchi

Prototype Images Of New Masterpiece Starscream

On this RFC Extra, the guys discuss all of the Transformers War For Cybertron Kingdom information discovered on Friday!

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And it's not even Tuesday!

In a surprising move, the official reveal for Selects G2 Megatron has come over the weekend, rather than as part of the five weeks of Transformers Tuesdays. Even more surprising is the first reveal of Selects G2 Decepticon Sandstorm!

Our first official look came from an unboxing feature on the website Geek Culture, which featured a video and a few in-hand style photos. Domestic preorders and the usual stock photo assortment became available soon after.

Sandstorm fulfills a long-abandoned alternate deco plan for the original G2 use of the seeker mold beyond G2 Starscream and Ramjet, and would have been a new character taking on a legacy name similar to what G2 Smokescreen would do a little later on. Like with Combat Megatron, Selects will be the first retail release of this deco and character concept, decades after it was pitched.

G2 Megatron is far from being an unused or unreleased deco, but you can find out more about Selects G2 Megatron in News Desk 114.

Both of these toys are up for preorder on fan channel retailers and Hasbro Pulse, with delivery as soon as December, depending on retailer.

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This week on Radio Free Cybertron: Generations Selects Megatron. And did we mention Generations Selects Megatron? Oh, and how about that Generations Selects Megatron?

Mentioned on the show

The News

RFC News Desk 114 – Generations Selects G2 Megatron Accidentally Leaked

Generations Selects Bug Bite Revealed For The Second Transformers Tuesday

First Look at Transformers Studio Series SS-69 Devastator Combiner Pack

Transformers Battlegrounds Gameplay Previews and Box Art

Transformers Earthrise Megatron Sighted at Washington Target - Quintesson Judge too

Transformers Cyberverse Skullcruncher Official Images

Leaked Transformers Kingdom, Studio Series 1986, Masterpiece, More Possible Listings?

Cross another Tuesday off the list.

Youtuber Kevin Liu, who has been known to work with Hasbro Asia from time to time for video content to help promote new toys, uploaded a video review revealing generations Selects G2 Megatron.

And then almost immediately took it back down because it posted too early. Oops. But in the short time it was viewable, people like Extradimensional Terrible Being on the TFWiki Discord and blastoff2334 on TFW2005 were able to grab a few screenshots.

Working from these, we can see that Megatron, who we now can confirm as WFC-GS14, is a redeco of the Earthrise retool of Siege Megatron. No mold changes are evident based on the images we have, but overall it seems like a very good adaptation of the very first G2 Megatron toy's deco on a modern Megatron. Sadly, we'll just have to learn to live without the MEGATRON ATTACK sound effect...

Selects Megatron may be planned as the second Transformers Tuesdays reveal, but whether it will be this coming Tuesday or not, we'll definitely be seeing it officially announced and preorders go up within the next few weeks.

Thanks to all of our Patrons who are making this possible! Join our Patreon and let's make awesome stuff happen!

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This week on RFC: A new Haslab Unicron Update, Five Weeks of Transformers Tuesdays, starting with Selects Hot House, Earthrise Bluestreak, Transformers RED Collection preorders pushed back, an egg that's a doctor, and much more!

 

Mentioned on the Show

Haslab Unicron Third Update Willed Into Existence by John Deluna

RFC News Desk 112 – Five Weeks of Transformers Tuesdays

Generations Selects Hot House Is The First Transformers Tuesday Reveal

RFC News Desk 113 – First Looks At Earthrise Bluestreak

Transformers RED Collection preorders pushed back to September 10th)

Dr. Egg Preorders go up for $175.99