TransMissions Episode 104 – Featuring Brian Kilby of Radio Free Cybertron!

Transformers-Pez-Dispenser_16x9On this international episode of TransMissions we’re joined by Radio Free Cybertron’s own Brian Kilby, and he tells us what it was like to be an Internet radio pioneer! We check out some killer G1 Pez dispensers in toys, there’s a review of the Free Comic Book Day issue #0 of the new Transformers: Robots In Disguise comic, and we get all caught up on listener feedback. We’ve got all this and much, much more on this week’s TransMissions!

Check out our “Trips to the Store” video segment on YouTube!

This episode was edited by Michael Ordway (@minervion).  Please check out his work in 3D modelling and animation and video and audio post-production at www.michaelordway.com!  Huge thanks to Michael for his hard work!

This episode of TransMissions is sponsored by Prime Toys, where you can get collector grade toys without the collector grade prices! Use the coupon code TRANSMISSIONSMAY at checkout for a 10% discount throughout the month of May!

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11 Comments

  1. One big difference between X-Transbots Cyclonus and all the previous ones is that the X-Transbots one will be the size of MP10 Optimus Prime. To some people that will be important.

    Your joke about the BotCon combiner set being Shattered Glass isn’t so far fetched. They were hinting at this in the last couple issues of the club comic. SG Optimus Prime and 4 of his Autobots were overthrown by Rodimus and ejected into space, where they were found by Unicron. So it seems Unicron perhaps reformating them into a SG Optimus Maximus combiner. The limbs are Prowl, Inferno, Ratchet and Brawn.

    There have been 3P versions of Sideswipe’s rocket pack, but they are all made to fit on MP Optimus Prime, not Sideswipe.

  2. As for the topic of the fan made combiner giving us new female figures, didn’t they have use vote for the alt modes, and show us the molds in the survey? So most likely these new “female” figures will just be male figures, perhaps with a little new molding and heads. Do you guys approve of just remolding male characters into female character, or do you thing they should be new molds? http://www.tfw2005.com/transformers-news/generations-classics-44/first-look-at-combiner-wars-hot-spot-and-groove-181924/

    • Yeah, it’s pretty obvious the female combiner will probably be all repaints with new heads. Heck, the Protectobots are mostly repaints with the exception of Rook and Hot Spot (and Groove if he counts). And I’m betting the future Combaticons will be all repaints (Onslaught will be a remold of Hot Spot, Swindle will be Offroad, Vortex will be Alpha Bravo/Blades, etc.).

      I’m fine with that. There’s nothing inherently ‘male’ in a blocky robot body. Female TFs don’t all have to have slim legs & robo-boobs. 🙂 Plus, look at all the existing male TFs with robo-manboobs. Put a new head on them and they could be a female character easily.

      In G1 the Japanese female Headmaster Minerva became Nightbeat in the US, so gender change in the same mold has been around since the beginning. In Beast Wars the first Blacharachnia figure was a repaint of Tarantulus. Going in the opposite direction, the new RID Strongarm could easily be a male TF if you put a different head on.

      In a perfect world I’d love to have lots of new male and female characters with completely new molds, but the realities of mass market business mean you gotta reuse what you got. It’s no different since the beginning with G1. Also, we’re already getting the first female Masterpiece TF, Road Rage, that is a repaint of Tracks.

      I see more female TF characters as a net positive regardless of whether their molds are original.

  3. Mark this down. May be the only time I say it. I’m siding with Yoshi. While I’m super stoked for more female transformers, I think the way they are going about it is questionable. making a big deal about it gives them a chance to pat themselves on the back for something they should have been doing anyway. Making adding females news, to me, points out the fact that there has always been a disparity. When the should have just realized the mistake and corrected it.
    Also none of the new combiner females should be pink. “Look pink, they HAVE to be women!”
    Great episode as usual.

    • Drew, I don’t disagree with your points, but I think those ARE reasons to make a big deal about it. Not to pat themselves on the back, but to signal to all the women and girls who have been turned off by the 30-year message (with a few exceptions) that Transformers are a boys-only toy. They need to tell folks that yes, we want to include you, and Transformers can be for everyone. You can’t change a negative perception without some counter-messaging. But yeah, let’s lay off the pink for now. 🙂

  4. When Bob Budiansky first wrote the Transformers tech specs for Hasbro, he decided there should be a female character, so he wrote Ratchet as female, the name Ratchet itself is inspired by Nurse Ratched from the film One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. The Hasbro execs nixed that idea because they said that robots didn’t have gender, all the robots should be gender neutral (which was depicted as neutral/masculine). There were technically no males OR females in the original cast or toy line. It a year+ later when the TV show writers were writing the episode “The Search for Alpha Trion” that they decided to have some fun by making up Elite One and her “female Autobots” as characters. By making female Autobots, it retro-conned all the neutral robots into males. So the reason why there were no “female” Transformers at first is because there were no genders at all. It’s actually BECAUSE they added female Transformers that all the early characters, the ones based on the toys, were now redefined as male.

    • I’m aware of the Ratchet story, but I don’t think the Hasbro execs nixed the female Ratchet idea because they wanted them to be gender neutral. They’ve been marketed as boys’ toys since the beginning. All the voice actors are male (with the few exceptions). All the characters use ‘he’ as pronouns. That’s not gender neutral. All the marketing shows boys and only boys playing with the toys. Most of the characters have been consistently portrayed as male with many characters embodying male archetypes and stereotypes. If we had all the bots use ‘she’ pronouns and have female voice actors would they be considered gender neutral?

  5. Another great show guys!!! But I think you forgot to mention something !!! You released this episode on May 8. And what happened on May 8th in history???
    31 years ago today Marvel released Transformers Issue 1 !!!!!!!!

  6. I managed to get the CW Cyclonus last week – and he’s decent – there are quibbles, but I like him a lot. A real pleasant surprise.
    He makes a better torso than Motormaster (who came this week even though I ordered him first) – who was pretty disappointing for me.

    n.b. Weibo is pronounced more like “way bore” (without the -r sound)

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