Radio Free Cybertron - All of our Transformers podcasts!

In this episode, we debut a new segment, Applied Dononomics! Also, we asked you to tell us your Transformers Grails, and Don judges you.

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This week: Transformers return to home videogame consoles after five years. Also, Optimus Prime dies, again, but in an alternate universe this time. All that and more!

Mentioned on the Show:

The News

RFC News Desk 103 – Transformers Battlegrounds Announced For Current Gen Consoles

Alternate Universe Sleep Mode Optimus Prime in Package

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This week: A Studio Series shakeup? Also, some surprise new toys got leaked to the internet. All that and more on RFC 678!

Mentioned on the Show:

The News

RFC News Desk 101 – Studio Series Goes To 1986 With Grimlock And Gnaw

RFC News Desk 102 – Leaked Transformers x Top Gun, Earthrise Thrust, Soundwave, Cyclonus, and Hubcap

Earthrise Snapdragon, Megatron, Quintesson Judge Official Box Images

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Transformers: Battlegrounds is the first Transformers console game since 2015's Devastation.

Publisher Outright Games posted a trailer and press release today for the upcoming Transformers Battlegrounds, the first console game for the franchise since Activision's Transformers: Devastation in 2015. A self-described "leading worldwide publisher of family-friendly entertainment," Outright plans to release Battlegrounds, developed by Coatsink Software, for Playstation 4, Xbox One, Switch, and PC via Steam on October 23rd.

Little is presently known about Battlegrounds except that the trailer makes use of Cyberverse and/or Evergreen designs with such characters as Arcee, Shockwave, Soundwave, Bumblebee, and of course Optimus Prime and Megatron appearing. The press release also describes the game as "all-out tactical warfare" and notes that it will be playable in single-player or multiplayer modes, but no concrete information as to genre or gameplay is given.

An all-ages game - Battlegrounds' PEGI rating for the EU market marks it as for ages 7 and up - represents a major shift from what Activision was doing with the franchise. The most fondly-remembered Transformers games, War For Cybertron and Fall of Cybertron, were definitely aimed at an older audience, and given that Devastation. Outright's catalog features licensed games for series such as Paw Patrol, Adventure Time, Ice Age, and Jumanji, while Coatsink has published at least a dozen indie games in addition to providing support to other developers on such games as the award-winning Papers, Please. Neither company's output is specific enough to infer anything about Battlegrounds' content, but it also shows that neither company is new to game development. More information is promised over the summer, so hopefully we'll know what kind of game Battlegrounds is by the time it's up for sale in October.

 

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There are five questions that each of us must answer. What are our favorite toys, toylines, media? Find out!

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On Saturday morning, everything leaked but the kitchen sink.

In lieu of a Fan First Friday for Transformers from Hasbro, we instead have a round of leaks giving us first looks at upcoming Generations toys.

TFClub on Weibo (1, 2) shared photos including Earthrise Thrust, and we have a photo of Hubcap shared by ARCTIC_ST0RM on Twitter, both of which we'd expected based on prior inventory listing leaks. But along with that were unexpected faces: Soundwave, substantially retooled and probably re-engineered from the Siege version, an all-new Voyager Cyclonus that seems to draw a lot of inspiration from the 2008 Universe Cyclonus, and then the most surprising of all...

Transformers x Top Gun Maverick. The next Transformers Collaborative offering is an Autobot based on the F-14 fighter jet. For now we only have a low resolution photo of a packaged sample so we can learn very little about it. But if it follows suit with Ectotron, it's probably built on the skeleton of some existing toy's engineering.

Given that this is a packaged piece, and that Thrust, Soundwave, and Hubcap all appear to have fully complete decos on the samples shown, retail release for these figures shouldn't be too far off. It's even probable that Maverick might have been designed as a see-now-buy-now product to coincide with SDCC.

Hubcap and Thrust were also believed to be either exclusives or Generations Selects, explaining why we're seeing full-deco samples right now: they could be announced and released at basically any time. Soundwave may too be someone's exclusive or a Selects. Only time, and hopefully a Fan First Friday stream, will tell.

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Studio Series may be looking quite different next year.

Thanks to Jtprime and grayman on TFW2005, we have some new product entries from the Walmart app that have stirred some confusion and debate this week.

Starting Wednesday with a listing for Studio Series Leader Class "Grimlock 86" there came to be two distinct leading schools of thought: That this referred to an updated rerelease of the existing Studio Series Grimlock, or that it was the jumping off point for a run of Studio Series based on the original 1986 Transformers The Movie.

Today's discovery of a Studio Series Deluxe 86 Gnaw seems to support the latter, surprisingly enough!

But if you think Studio Series should only be for live action Transformers movies, you still may not be entirely out of luck, since listings were also found for four figures representing Revenge of The Fallen: Deluxes Bumblebee with Sam, Sideswipe, and Jolt, and Leader class Grindor with Ravage. Three of those four seem pretty obvious as mainly mold reuses, but at least it's not Skids and Mudflap. Yet.

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This week: MPM Ratchet, Earthrise Bluestreak, lots of expensive NOT Junkions that even Diecast doesn't want, and way more!

Mentioned on the Show:

The News

RFC News Desk 100 – Movie Masterpiece Ratchet Officially Revealed

RFC News Desk 099 – Earthrise Bluestreak Listing Toy Detective Special

KFC EAVI METAL Phase Six Unofficial Junkion Series Images

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MPM-11 was officially announced and revealed this morning.

MPM-11 Ratchet will be coming to Target this October in the US for $119.99. Hasbro has released details including product copy, photos, and even a stop motion video featuring Ratchet with a special appearance by MPM-10 Starscream to promote the new figure.

Modeled after the Transformers live action movies, Movie Masterpiece authentic figures feature film-inspired details and accessories, ideal for displaying on collectors’ shelves. This authentic Transformers collectible figure was inspired by the CAD files from the first Transformers film and includes die cast parts and 150 deco ops with more than 35 points of articulation.

Imagine reenacting the epic street battle from the first Transformers film between Ratchet and Starscream with this figure and MPM-10 Starscream (each sold separately, subject to availability). Look for more Movie Masterpiece figures to reimagine iconic scenes from the Transformers films. (Each sold separately. Subject to availability.)

This MPM-11 Autobot Ratchet figure converts from the movie-accurate official Hummer H2 rescue vehicle to robot mode in 61 steps. Figure includes highly articulated hands, moveable mouth, and missile, laser cannon, and buzz saw arm attachment accessories. Visit www.move-central.com/.

* MOVIE MASTERPIECE SERIES: Masterpiece Movie Series figures are authentic Transformers collectible action figures modeled by the Transformers live action movies, with screen-inspired details and accessories

* PREMIUM DESIGN: Featuring die cast parts and 150 deco ops with more than 35 points of articulation, this Autobot Ratchet figure was inspired by the CAD files from the first Transformers live action movie

* SCREEN-ACCURATE CONVERSION: Convert Autobot Ratchet figure into a movie-inspired official Hummer H2 rescue vehicle as seen in the first Transformers live action movie in 61 steps.

* DETAILED FEATURES AND ACCESSORIES: Figure features highly articulated hands and a moveable mouth. Includes laser cannon, buzz saw and 2 missile arm attachment accessories

* POSE WITH OTHER MOVIE MASTERPIECE FIGURES: Reimagine iconic moments from the Transformers films with other Movie Masterpiece figures. Each sold separately. Subject to availability.

Earthrise Bluestreak is on the way, but is there more we can learn?

On TFW2005, Jtprime found listings for several non-standard retail Generations items, including the new find of Bluestreak. The information comes from idee+spiel which appears to be a German wholesale or distribution site. The listing itself is set to an inaccessible status not unlike what we see on Amazon in certain situations, but the page title still contains useful information.

Based on that information, it looks like Bluestreak will be sold individually rather than as part of a set, and the formatting matches other known exclusives, effectively ruling this out as being part of Earthrise wave 4. Another piece of useful information is given here, which is the Hasbro product code, E7463.

Since Toy Fair, we've known of Earthrise serial codes (the WFC-E## number) up to WFC-E39. But there was a pretty big gap between the numbering of wave 2, and where wave 3 started. The gap is 8 items long, and it's only been since Target's exclusive Seekers and Decepticon Clones sets were officially revealed that we've been able to begin to piece together what goes in that space. This new information helps us understand it a little more.

Those Target exclusives, which are WFC-E29 and E30, are product coded E8624 and E8623, respectively. Meanwhile, the Autobot Alliance two pack, which is Ironhide and Prowl, and Alternate Universe Optimus Prime which were first seen on Amazon have been found on idee+spiel as E7461 and E7462. This looks like a pattern, and that's what can tell us a bit more about what's coming up.

It looks like the 746 range might specifically indicate the items Amazon will be carrying, and 862 denotes Target. Bluestreak is E7463, which would mean that's another Amazon exclusive. There's also one more number in each block that doesn't have a product name associated - 7460, and 8622. But since they're sequential with the named items, we can safely presume they're part of the same batches. That accounts for 7 of the 8 slots in the WFC number gap. Of these, 4 fit the apparent Amazon pattern, and the other 3 correspond to Target.

My speculation is that we're looking at 4 exclusives from each retailer, and the last Target number just hasn't been identified yet. And this means we know the extent of what Amazon can be expected to carry: Autobot Alliance (formerly "Earthmode Two Pack"), Elite Hunters which was referenced in the product copy for Autobot Alliance, Alternate Universe Optimus Prime, and now Bluestreak. Admittedly, I'm assuming Elite Hunters is Amazon based solely on it being referenced by name in the text of another Amazon listing, but that logic seems to track.

I also think that Target and Amazon might have equivalent exclusives. So far Target's have been revealed as two two-packs. Autobot Alliance is known to be a two-pack, and Elite Hunters by the plural name must be at least a two pack. This could very easily indicate Target's remaining exclusives are a Deluxe and a Leader. Though as for what specifically those might turn out to be, your guess is currently as good as mine.

We clearly still have missing pieces, and we'll have to see at least a few more before we can really figure out the complete picture here, but these small bits of information have done a lot to help figure out what we can reasonably expect in the next few weeks or months.

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