Episode 122 - Transformers (Wave 3)

Man, when they said "more than meets the eye" they really meant "MORE than meets the eye" - Wave 3 of Transformers has over 40 toys in it! We didn't have time to discuss each one individually, but I think you'll find we covered the wave pretty exhaustively.

Episode Transcript

(00:02):
In nineteen eighty six, a cartoonthat we all loved watching in the afternoon
made the leap to the big screen. We were all excited until about fifteen
twenty minutes into the movie when themain character was brutally murdered in front of
our eyes. Scarred an entire generation, and even at that young age.

(00:22):
I was nine years old when thiscame out, I realized, Oh,
they're just doing this so they canintroduce new characters that they can sell toys
of. Even then, I understoodthe cynical nature of advertising and marketing.
Were the toys that we got thenew toys, were they as cool as

(00:44):
the ones that came before. That'swhat we're going to discuss today. The
cartoon and movie and toy line thatI'm talking about is Transformers, and that
is why I'm here Talking toys.Welcome to Talking Toys with Taylor and Jeff,

(01:18):
where we go back in time todiscuss our favorite toys, one toy
line at a time. Hello,and welcome to Talking Toys with Taylor and
Jeff. I'm Taylor, and I'mJeff. And Taylor. Do you remember

(01:41):
the first time you saw Transformers themovie? You know? Um? Yes,
and no, So don't don't hateme on this, Okay, Um
Taylor, We've been doing the showfor it almost eleven years. There are
many reasons that I have to hateyou, but I doubt this will be
one of them. So, Iyou know, I've had people tell me
about this scene, and I knowI've seen the movie like three or four

(02:06):
times, but it was never anythingI really remembered, and so I just
kind of kept forgetting it, andI would watch it being like, oh
yeah, yeah, I remember that, and then I would forget it.
And so the whole scene where Optimusdies, I honestly I don't remember it.

(02:27):
I do remember them bringing Rotimus in, and I remember that because I
had a Choose Your Adventure book thatinstead of Optimus had Rotimus on there,
and I remember being confused as akid, like why what's going on?
And then I would remember, oh, yeah, they killed Optimus, but
then I'd forget it. Never satwith me. The movie never sat with

(02:50):
me. I don't understand why it'slike it. I know I've watched the
whole thing, but it's been likeI would watch some of it here.
I'd watch some of it here,move it here, some of it here,
and I know my friends would haveit on I would watch it there,
but I don't think I've ever satto watch the entire thing in one
role. Okay, So the answerthat is, no, you don't remember.

(03:10):
I don't remember it all. Hedidn't play long in theater, so
I didn't get to see it intheaters. About a rented it on VHS
when it came out, and Iremember when he got killed. I thought
that what it was much the samefeeling that I had when spoilers Han Solo
got killed in the Force Awakens.I just kind of set the what that's
that? That happened that? Yeah, I know you've seen it, Taylor,
Just stop, Um did that happen? That? Surely they're going to

(03:35):
bring him back? And then theynever brought him back. They did in
a way, Um, but itwas still you know anyway. Yeah.
Yeah, there's a reason there's areason that the that G I. Joe
the Movie didn't get a theater aslarge of a theatrical release as it was
going to because when Transformers the moviewas so poorly received, they thought they
thought better about putting G I.Joe the movie out, and with good

(03:58):
reason, because that movie is probablyas bad, maybe even worse than Transformers.
The movie It's it's pretty It's prettybad. I have it, um
I did. That was one ofthose I transferred over UM. And I
had forgotten that Meredith Burgess was init. No Burgess, Meredith Burgess,
Meredith. Sorry, come on,Taylor. I had completely forgotten. And

(04:19):
I was watched it the other day. I was saying, oh, yeah,
and then halfway and I was like, I remember why. I didn't
really care much of this movie.The only thing I remember wrote about that
is Sergeant Slaughter talking about any dittybag, which just gave me the creeps
for some reason. So, folks, we're talking Wave three of Transformers.

(04:41):
And we decided to do this becausewe thought, you know, it'll be
kind of easy, there won't bea lot of prep. And then we
started looking at the amount of toysin this line. Folks, Wave three
of Transformers is huge. Yeah,and not great. I'm just gonna say
it, I don't know what theTaylor the toy Apologist can even find a
lot to do with this one.Here's the thing, so that way we're
going to attack this is there areseveral different like subsections of the lines that

(05:04):
we're going to talk about each ofthose. We're gonna kind of talk in
general terms about each of those andtalk about our thoughts on those, and
then we'll do our top five.Here's my main problem. If you go
to if you go to the ToyCollectors Guide dot com, which is a
great side by the way, andlook at the Transformers thaying you'll transform at
this page for wave three, you'llsee most of the line we're smaller figures

(05:29):
that were sold on cards with withbubbles, a star Wars or gobots.
Most of this wave are freaking gobots. And I don't want to hear anybody
ever try to tell me that Transformersare better than gobots ever again, because

(05:50):
half the Transformers line is flipping gobots. But no, I will, I
will, I will hear, no, I will hear, no, I
will hear no arguments or debate tothe to the contrary this I have spoken.
This, this line I just tookmyself, really does kind of feel

(06:11):
like that, kind of like thatgobot cash in they jumped the shark.
This is where the line we talkedabout it on our Gijo show that the
Gijoe got pretty far into the linebefore it jumped the shark. This is
where this one jumped the shark.For me, this can I just jump
in on the shark and actually talkabout the jumping the shark for giant robots
that turn into vehicles themselves well speaking, and there's a shark in this line.

(06:38):
No, yeah, which which whichwe're going to talk about because that
that's actually to me one of thebright points of this way because it's just
so freaking goofy we they kind ofjumped the shark. In the next year
pretty big and the next wave aswell, because if I remember correctly,
that's the one that has the theones where the hideables or the ones that

(06:59):
hide in the shell of like thedifferent warriors and probably yeah, like that
one really like this is this isstill attainable in the giant robot transforming into
vehicles lore of things. And there'sthere's some cool stuff in here that you

(07:19):
would probably think would jump to shark. But I still think that it's kind
of the the idea of it.It's kind of cool. This wave is
not without its bright spots. Ido have a top five list. Um,
I only had one toy from thiswave. Did you have any Well,
we'll get it's going to surprise you. I was going through. There

(07:42):
were a couple that I recognize.Um, I didn't have, but I
my friend had, so I wouldplay with him often. The friend Stephen
was that his name Steven? Yeah, he had Like there were a couple
the military tank in the space shuttlethat turned into Bruticus. Um. I
remember him having the helicopter. Therewas let's see, I always wanted Rodomus.

(08:09):
That was one that I like,I was looking to all the time.
And then I remember I had someoneI did know someone that had gnaw
or the shark Aton, shark deCoon, shark Tacon and it sounds like
something else, honestly. Oh,and I have to have to tell this

(08:31):
story. And I think I textedyou that I might not have because you
never respond to text. We werewatching something this weekend and Pam made a
reference to the necrocomicon, talking aboutthe Necronomicon, but she pronounced that necrocomicon.
And so then all I had inmy mind was a comic con for
the walking for just zombies, forjust the walking up the walking Dead quote

(08:54):
unquote, but just zombies like theLiving Dead. Yeah. I did reply
that because I was like dude thatI think you're onto something. You should
start one. Oh, that's right, you did. That was the one
that was the one. Yeah,the one that was the one. Oh.
And also I wanted to congratulate you. I saw you did a custom
job on I think it was aLola bot of some sort. Um.

(09:18):
It's nice that you've got time towork on your own customs and not those
that somebody gave you ten years ago. But a very simple request, even
provided you the material, and you'restill just sitting on it. Oh there
was one more, Um, Idid have the second way, So he

(09:39):
just swashed over that and ignored that. I said it. Yeah, the
second the second wave of onslaught,not this one, but the second wave,
the one that did them. Itwas like a camouflage variation. I
had that one. And then healso had octane. Oh man, and
there were a couple others. Allright, all right, well we'll we'll

(10:03):
we'll get to that. So folks, here here's where the rundown is.
So we had. The first setwe had were the aerial bots. They
were a group of auDA bots thattransformed various flying jets and vehicles. Most
of them we came on cards.There there was one silver Bolt who came
in a box and they all wehad a lot of combiners in this line.

(10:24):
It was it was basically a bunchof combiners, each one combined to
form like these combined to form superioronAnd they're neat looking jets and everything,
but it's their gobots. They're they'resmall scale. They look really cool.
They you know, there's one airraid looks like a smaller version of one
of the sweeps, you know,Star Scream, jet Fire whatever they are.

(10:46):
They look cool, but they're butthey're gobots. The weird thing that
I have with the someone's the Combinatronsor the combiners is the the fact,
like this set here, I mean, it's a cool looking set, and
the combiner that they build is reallycool looking, but in jet form you

(11:07):
have silver Bolt is twice the sizeof all the other jets. So it's
like it's like this is an adultsized jet and all these are kids sized
jets, but we know that kidsare gonna be flying jets. It's just
like the size scale, like differenceon these don't make a lot of sense

(11:28):
because silver Bolts itself is not likeit's like a it's a Concord jet liner,
but they're not that much bigger thanthese other fighter jets, and everything
just fills off on this. Yeah. No, it's odd and we'll see
this in every single subset that we'vegot in this wave, so we'll we'll

(11:48):
get into that as we go along. Yeah, So we had those.
Then we had the Autobot cars andthere were only three. It was Blur,
hot Rod, and Cup, thesmallest set of Autobot cars ever released,
Blur, and they were Cybertronian carso this was these were the ones
that took place on Cybertron. Sowe had you know, Blur was a

(12:09):
Sybertonian race car, hot Rod wasa Cybertonian sports car, and uh Cup
was a Cybertonian pickup truck yep.So they look cool, but it's it's
kind of hard to you know,kind of hard to play with them in
an Earth earthbound setting. Um becauseof that. Then we had the Autobot
mini cars, which you know kindof like Bumblebee, and in fact they

(12:30):
had when that I thought was Bumblebee. It's a Hubcap who was a compact
car. We had Outback, whois a jeep Pipes that is a semi
truck. Wheelee who turns into Who'sa Cybertonian race car, Tailgate is a
sports car, and Swerve is ageneric pickup truck. And again you know
they're they're neat and all, andthey're they're cool enough, but again they're

(12:50):
just gobots, right, and they'rethey're small gobots even. Yeah, and
very simplistic, yes, very veryvery simplistic. The transform function is very
simplistic, like I said. Andthen we had the battle chargers, and
I'm not really sure what were theseones. Were these motorized or how did

(13:13):
they work? The battle chargers?I think these were let's see, these
are the ones that spring up,so it's like, okay, you would
roll them back, you let themgo, and then they would spring up
and flip up and flip into avery simplistic robot shape. There was another
Transformer set that I swear had thisthat was like it was a pop up.

(13:35):
Yeah, I know, it's shockingabout I think I don't think I
think it was like a knockoff.I think it was like a knockoff that
we had one of these. Wehad it was it was one of the
it was like one of the weird. It was supposed to be, I
think at the Scepticon, but itwas like one of those like last of
the Wave, of the last Wavethat we looked at. Okay, yeah,
yeah, probably so. And theselooked to be a little bit bigger

(13:56):
than the mini cards we talked about. We had run About and run them
up. Runabout was a sports carand run Amuck was was a lotus actually,
and run Amuck was a Pontiac transam. Runabout was a lotus.
Yeah. We had for some reason, we had a bunch of cassettes that
got released again. We had aRamhorn and Eject rat Bat and Frenzy,
and Rewind and steel jaw M.Frenzy was reused from Pastline. The rest

(14:20):
are new characters. But again,you know they're neat and all. But
I don't know why we need sixof them, you know. Well,
and it's like one of those scenesif you didn't have under yeah, then
it would make no sense to havethem. Like I remember I remember someone
having a cassette, but they didn'thave they didn't have either one of the

(14:41):
players. So you just walked aroundwith a cassette and I guess flew it
with your jet. It just seemedoff like it's odd. Yeah. Then
we had the combat Coons, whichwere Decepticons. It transformed into military vehicles
of different sorts. Um blast Offwas a space shuttle, Brawl was a
military tank, Swindle was a combatsupport vehicleist some sort. Vortex was a

(15:07):
helicopter, and then Onslaught was aone that came in a box that's larger
and as an anti aircraft truck,and they combined to form Bruticus, which
is a great name, but againwe just got We got more combiners and
the rest of them were on onblister cards. Then we had two more
Decepticon jets. We had Cyclonists,who was a Cybertonian fighter craft and Scourge

(15:28):
who was a hovercraft not really jet, but he was. He was a
hovercraft. And again they came inboxes. They were your typical normal sized
transformers. Then we had the twoheroes. We had Rodimus Prime, which
was hot Rod. After he becameRodimus Prime, he got the matrix of
leadership and he turned into a Cybertoniantruck. He was sort of like,

(15:50):
you know, the nephew of ofOptimist Prime at that point. And we
had Rehet Gar who turned into aCybertronian motorcycle, and I was really like
that one. I thought he wascool. Yeah, and then we had
the Predacons and shark t cons,only one of which was actually a shark.
The Predicons we had dive Bomb whowas an eagle, Headstrong who was

(16:11):
a rhinoceros, Rampage was a tiger, razor Claw was a lion. Tantrum
for some reason was a water buffalo. I like that one, and Naw
I like the name was Tantrum.And then naw Gnaw was a robotic shark,
and I remembered seeing him in themovie. Yes, he got a

(16:33):
lot of the shark to coons gota lot of play in the movie.
And then after that we had theProtecto bots, which were able to transform
into first responder vehicles. We hadBlades who was a helicopter, First Aid
was an ambulance, Groove was apolice motorcycle, Streetwise was a police car,
and then the large one in thatset was hot Spot, who was
a Mitsubishi fire engine and they combinedtogether to form Defense or This one was

(16:59):
probably to me of this group ofcombiners was probably the coolest one. It
is. I remember I had aand like one of these cell things.
I had a couple of these thatI was trying to put this together because
I love the way that this combinerlooked as far as like that, because
it does really carry a lot ofthe same like color scheme throughout, and

(17:22):
it looks like these are all likeemergency vehicles, and this was like some
sort of emergency medical type transformers.I dig the design that they have in
the combiner well, and the thingabout this one, and I think the
reason that I like it so muchis because in their vehicle forms, all
of these look better than the others. And I think it's because they're because
there are emergency vehicles. There's nota whole lot of you don't need a

(17:48):
whole lot of like detail on it, you know, like stickers or colors
or you know, paint app oranything like that, whereas the others they
look just kind of plain plai innot pla. They look a little plain.
The combaticons are all just you know, different shades of green, and
the others, the other combiners,they just they look very The planes all

(18:12):
just look they look very I don'tknow, they just look very simple,
and they don't really look as muchlike what they're supposed to look like as
these do, right, So Ilike those Probably those are my favorite combiners
in this said, and then wehad these Stunticons, which are a group
of Decepticons that transformed into stunt vehicles, like Breakdown was a Lamborghini, dead
End was a Porsche, and Dragstripwas a Formula One race car. Then

(18:36):
we also had Wild Rioter who wasa Ferrari and the big one there was
called Motormaster and he was a Kinworthsleeper truck with trailer. Basically looked like
an evil Optimus Prime to me,Yeah, except when they're in their vehic,
when they're in their robot form.I find that a lot of these
in their robot form, like wherewe would get head sculpts with the other
waves, these it's almost like they'rejust faces on a flat sir. Did

(19:00):
you find that to be the casewhen you're looking at these, yes,
yes, And that felt very muchlike a gobots sort of sort of thing.
No gobots had Gobots had faces.Well, there were some that had
like heads that would flip out,that had faces like that's is rather flat.
I did look at these. Iremembered I did have one of these

(19:22):
um I had the let's see deadend. I did have one of those,
and that was one that could umthe way that you could transform it.
You could transform in a couple ofdifferent ways, so it had a
transforming, it had a mid transformingif I remember correctly, and then it
had a m Well, there wereTriple Changers, which we'll get to,

(19:45):
which we're just now getting to.Actually, yep, I think that's what
you're thinking about. Yeah, theTriple Changers were the next line, and
they were a subset that had threeautobots and one Decepticon. They could change
in three separate modes. We hadBroadside, who was a robot, an
aircraft carrier and a jet fighter.Octane was a Decepticon. He was a
semitruck cab with a fuel tanker anda Boeing seven sixty seven. Sandstorm was

(20:08):
a dune buggy and a rescue helicopter. And Springer was an armored car and
a helicopter. And my problem withthese, specifically with Broadside, is they
in each mode they suggest what they'resupposed to be, but they don't look
like it right, like they're notgoing to fool anybody. And I think

(20:30):
that was my big problem with thisone is they all everything looked so it
was either a deceptive either a Cybertronianvehicle, which fine, or it was
something that just looked off. Itlooked they looked half done to me.
Yes, okay, you had thesame experience, Yeah, especially with the

(20:52):
Triple Changers. Yeah. The oneI was looking at was the dead end,
which was there were a stunt consand it was sorry, it was
stunt vehicles. I remember there beingsomething where it seemed like halfway through it
looked like it was something else,but it wasn't. But they had recently
put out the Triple Changers, orlike a couple of Triple Changers back to

(21:15):
the shelf, and I can't rememberwhich one it was, but I remember
looking at was a Space Shuttle oneand I remember looking at it kind of
going I'd kind of like to getthat. And I started looking at the
different forms and was like, Icould pass. I don't need to rush
out for this. Maybe maybe whenit hits clearance, I'll do that,

(21:37):
right. Yeah, we had that, and then the last group that we
have are the I guess the sortof the Deluxe assortment, if you will.
We had Galvatron, who was aCybertronic Fielder Channel Taylor Union. We
had Skylinks, who was a spaceshuttle and a prehistoric bird, and a

(21:59):
Link we had Tripped to Con whowas a two figures brunt in full tilt
that turned into a mobile battle station. And then we had Ultra Magnus,
who was a semi truck cab witha trailer. And then we had Metroplex,
yes, which was had two figureswith it and it was a multi
level city. Metroplex is the oneI had, Really you had, I

(22:26):
had Metroplex. I can only assumethat I got it like on clearance at
like KB Toys or something, becauseI can't imagine that it. I may
have gotten it for Christmas. Maybemaybe my parents just got a deal on
it for Christmas. But yeah,I had Metroplex, and Metroplex was awesome.
Metroplex is almost enough. Metroplex andUltra Magnus, I think, are
almost enough to save this wave forme. And Skylinks I'm let down by

(22:52):
because I love the concept of it, But if you look at it,
it just looks so weird. Yes, yeah, it's kind of odd.
It is. It's an I shouldsay, an odd bird, right,
an odd an odd Links and OddDuck and I, yeah, I know
they're like I said, there's somecool toys in this wave, but I

(23:14):
think overall it's it's it's a letdownfor me. What are your thoughts on
it? We we've we've gone throughthe whole the whole wave. What are
your thoughts on it? What whatworks for you and what doesn't. It's
probably the most varied wave. Sothey've got, in my opinion, a
little bit of everything for everyone.And I felt like they were throwing things
to the wall to see what wouldstick, like they kind of lost lost
their focus. Well, you know, thinking about like the very beginning of

(23:37):
the figures we talked about with theCarded figures, it's it's almost like they're
like saying, Okay, we needto get kids who have you know,
um a little bit less money involvedand get them something simplistic. You know.
It's almost like trying to build ayounger kids. And so they've got
very simplistic you know, Carded basicallytransformers to put out in order to get

(24:03):
that audience. Well, if youget them all, then you combine them.
For those who don't want to haveto buy them all. Card they
offer guest sets to have everything involvedto create one giant robot, which as
a kid who doesn't want to createone giant robot, right, then they're
definitely supporting the movie with all theCybertronian like transforms, you know, which

(24:27):
I'm actually kind of cool with.I dig them to an extent. You
know, as an adult, Idon't mind it, and as a kid,
I probably would have thought it wascool. Yeah. My disconnect with
it is they're supposed to, especiallythe ones that are called Dyscepticons. Yeah,
they're supposed to be deceiving the peopleof Earth, right, So yeah,

(24:52):
well I think you know, atthis point, like looking at it,
it almost feels like it almost feelslike Hasbro's trying to get you know,
a new audience in for Transformers.The kids who grew up with it,
you know, for the last twoways before it's like they're getting a
little bit older. They're like,you know what, will give them a

(25:15):
couple of huge playsets to work withthat they can use with their other Transformers,
but now we're going to vary upand give some to a different group
to try to get the younger onesin. So it almost feels like a
grab to start gathering a new audiencebefore the people who do buy this basically

(25:36):
buy out and sell out of transformersand they lose the line, you know
what I mean. So it feelslike they're they're simplifying things in putting in
some new ideas in order to getmore audience in on it. Well,
they were also and I think Iread somewhere that this was sort of the
last gasp of the original property rightthat they that they imported from Japan.

(26:02):
It's interesting to me that they wentalmost all in on combiners. That was
something I did not expect because we'dhad some before, we had the constructor
cons before. Um, what doyou think the thinking of what do you
think the thought is behind that?Why why do we have so many different
combiners here? Well, I thinkone of the big reasons is if they

(26:26):
if you've got a few of smallvehicles and kids are wanting to buy that,
and you know, then you canthen tice them of putting something together.
Well, they're not just going tobuy one or two transformers, you
know, at at shelf price inorder to play with those. They're going
to go out and buy you know, four carded, one boxed in order

(26:49):
to put together one giant figure,so instead of having like maybe two box
figures or like one deluxe box figure, now you've got the cell of a
deluxe and bore hearted, so you'reputting extra money in your account. It
also comes down to the fact thatprobably the smaller vehicles are a lot easier

(27:12):
to put together because there's less parts. They're true, very simplistic, and
they take up less packaging. That'strue, and I think you're onto something
there. I think it was moreabout the whole collector mentality of getting them
all because you've got a kid.If you get one or two of these
for Christmas and you realize, oh, there's there's four of these and this

(27:33):
bigger one. I can just getthese, and I've got a combiner.
I can put everything together. Imean even so they can then pester their
parents or save their allowance to getthe rest of them. It's it makes
for like a smaller subset. Andthe thing is it does work, like
even even out of the box ofthe stuff that I got, And I
had a couple of those little umbasic vehicles that were just combiners, and

(27:56):
I was like, you know,I was like, oh wow, they
come together to make one giant combiner. I did. First thing I started
doing is started looking online to findthem. Now they were priced out of
my range, so it's like,I'm not obviously going to do it.
But if these had been on storeshelves, yeah, I would probably buy
all five of them to put togethera giant Robot. I might not be

(28:18):
able to buy a whole gift setto do them all at once, but
to get a few here and thereand to be able to put them together,
yeah, I totally do that.That's the whole build a figure idea,
like what we've gotten with you know, DC Classics before and with you
know, has Ro's done it witha few things, and this is kind

(28:38):
of the very first build a figuresort of idea that we have where it's
like you can combine these to createone giant robot. Except for the thing
about this one though, is thatlike, unlike the build a figure items
you're talking about with those, ifyou want to build a figure, I
means you have to buy figures.You mayn't necessarily want these, it's the

(29:00):
figure itself that is part of thecombiner. And somehow to me, that's
an easier sell. If I've gotfour of these, and there's one that
I'm I'm not really keen on,but it's five bucks and I can buy
it, and then I can havesix toys instead of five. Yeah,
I'm probably gonna go ahead and spendthe extra money. And I think that's

(29:21):
I think that's good. And froma marketing standpoint, I think it's a
genius. I think it's brilliant.And again, for the most part,
the combiners, when you put themtogether, they are really cool. I
think I think the individual especially thesmaller vehicles, are kind of a letdown
because again, like you said,they're very simple, they're very basic.

(29:41):
But the small the larger vehicles thatcome in in the boxes I think are
some of the stronger ones in thewave. Yeah, it's one of those
where you're you know, when you'rebuying those little transformers, you're not necessarily
buying the transformers. You're buying armsand legs for the bigger trans right,
right, I need this guy becausehe's the he's the right foot what whatever.

(30:08):
Yeah, I'm thinking about it.It's like, you know, if
you couldn't afford a gift set,but you can get Hey, I could
get a couple of vehicles now,well you can get them still have transformers,
and then start working your way upto that next allounce to get the
next two and then the big boxone. So yeah, it's it's a
genius strategy, and I think itit's one of those that definitely works for

(30:32):
transformers more than anything else. Agreed. Agreed. Yeah, um, so
are there any of these, anyof these that you wanted to talk about
in particular? I know, youknow we had mentioned naw the shark to
con Oh nah, he's pretty cool. I actually dig This is one of

(30:56):
those where they they're giving us somethingthat we don't really ever see, like
like, how often do you geta shark creature creature sort of robot transforming
monster. Right, Well, butbasically what we have is we have a

(31:18):
shark that has two legs but noarms. Well no, he there's one
version where he has two arms thatcan roll out of the body. Okay,
but the picture he doesn't have thearms and I rolled out. They're
weird. It looks less like ashark and more like some sort of alligator
or bug. Yeah, it does, it really does. And again it's

(31:44):
goofy and I like it and I'mhere for it. I mentioned before that
these kind of look like the FisherPrice transformers to me, and I figured
out why. The first couple ofwaves that we had of these, there
was a lot of chrome in them, you know, we had, especially
for the cars, anything that wassupposed to be chrome or metal with silver,
m sort of acmetal. We don'thave much of that at all in

(32:06):
this line. And I'm looking specificallylike at Gnaw, it's all neon.
It's it's almost like, you know, this came out in nineteen eighty six,
but it might as well have beennineteen ninety one ninety two with all
the neon and sort of the oversizedfeatures that we had. Do you find
that to be the case? Yeah, it feels it feels a lot like
um, like they're trying to replicatewhat's in the cartoon, and so in

(32:29):
the cartoon, they you know,it's hard to animate chrome and metal and
a cartoon, it really is.So it's like they're going to do kind
of broad you know, strokes ofcolor that are a little bit brighter that
can kind of attracts people more toget them to come and watch it or
to come and look at this there. They're really up in their game.

(32:50):
On the color scheme in order todraw the eye back to the shelf instead
of doing all that chrome, andit feels it feels more like a like
they're trying to step down the audienceto get that younger audience and the little
brothers to the big brothers and toplaying with transformers now well, and also

(33:13):
like I'm thinking of like a characterlike Cup, this could be really cool.
It's supposed to be a Sabertonian truck, but it looks more like a
sled of some sort in his vehiclemode, yes, and then when he's
in his robot mode, you getthis huge like that basically the windshield is
like his body and his arms arejust kind of sticking out behind it,
and his legs come straight down.It just looks so weird and it looks

(33:38):
less It just looks less complex thanthe first couple of waves that we got,
right, It just looks really simpleto me. And I think that
that kind of supports what you're sayingabout this sort of being aimed at the
at a younger audience. Yes,most definitely, this really really does feel

(34:00):
like it's it's meant for the youngkids at this point, Like it's kind
of like one of those things.It's like, hey, we've got this,
you know, but we really wantthe kids to be involved and play
with them, and the only waywe're going to do that is to make
it youthful for him and make thembasically like enjoy Transformers on a very basic

(34:27):
level. So in that case,you're not going to have a lot of
chrome. You're not going to havelike a lot of very complex changes.
You know, like the when thenew anniversary stuff came out, I'd picked
up a couple of Transformers that Iliked, you know, and my kids
always talking about it. He's like, I want to transform and I'm like

(34:49):
I'm like, okay, that's cool. It's like, well let's get out
the sheet and he goes, oh, it's twenty six steps. I really
don't want to do that. Canyou transform it? Well, you know,
if you don't have an older brotherthat's really into that and I need
something simplistic and you're wanting kids tobe involved, well, if they can't
transform it because it transforms in nineteensteps and they don't have the span to

(35:13):
do that, then they're not goingto buy it. So you kind of
you kind of find a way todump it down to get that audience in
right. Yeah, that's true.Oh boys, So were there any others
that you wanted to discuss before wemove into our top five? Because the
ones I want to discuss are allin my top five, and so I
figure I can just hold those discussionsoff until then. The ones that I

(35:37):
kind of have in mind are alsogoing to be in the top five that
I was going to talk about,like just the Cybertronian changeovers, because we've
got several. Even though we've gotone that's small, we've got three that's
you know, the normal figure size, and it seems like there's one more.

(35:58):
I owe two more, the biggerjets. The Cybertronian changeover. You
know, you said that you didn'tlike it because it just doesn't feel like
it's a part of like Earth sortof thing, And that was something that
was kind of a big ordeal whenStar Scream came out on the first wave

(36:19):
of like the new Anniversary figures.Star Scream turned it into a Cybertronian mothership,
like a jet ship. A lotof people dislike that, but I
kind of dig the futuristic like vehicleforms of these. I enjoy them because
it makes me have more of abelievable feel that these things could exist because

(36:44):
now that Earth elements taken away,and so it feels more like this is
like their natural state and it risefrom me. And again, and I
get it, you know, I'mnot going to fault them for doing that.
It's just my own personal preference isthat I think I would have preferred
to have a better mix. Andif they're going to do like the Triple

(37:06):
Changers, I think that would havebeen a perfect time to have robot form
Sabertonian form Earth form. Yeah,that would have been That would have been
great. Yeah. Actually, therethere it's a There are two versions of
of a car. One is aSabertonian version and one is the Earth version.
Give us that. That's what Iwould would have wanted in that that

(37:28):
part of the line, And itseems like such an obvious choice. I'm
surprised they missed it. Hmm.That either either they missed it or they
just didn't want to go that directionlike it. And again, remember this
is like the last wave of theJapanese run Um action theors. You know,

(37:52):
at this at this rate, theyprobably had major changes on their end,
and maybe maybe they weren't selling quiteso much. So if they would
have gone with all Cybertronian or hada mode that was Cybertronian, then it
would leave kids scratching their head.Because the Japanese ways, if I remember
correctly, are a few years beforethey come to the States. That that's

(38:16):
the case, then there was nomovie out for these, right, and
so they wouldn't have known really allthe ins and outs of what a Cybertronian
mode was. Yeah, agreed,Yeah, absolutely right? Yeah, all
right, So are we ready thanto dive into our top five? We

(38:37):
are? Okay, we'll take ashort Okay, I mean I'm ready.
We'll take a short break and thenwe'll be back to discuss our top five
from this line. Okay, sinceI remembered that I had one before you
did, that means you're gonna startand I'm going to finish it off.

(39:00):
All right, turned the tables alittle bit from our usual So what is
your number five? My number fiveis cup okay um. I really like
this. I mean it's it's avery simplistic design. It feels more like
a transformer shoe, like a littleslip on sandal. What it looks like
to me? What's that? Itlooks like like a water ride at six

(39:23):
Flags or some amusement park. Yeah, that's what it looks like to me.
I dig that. It's not abad thing. Yeah, No,
I love this design and I lovethe color scheme on this, like that
rad against the turquoise and the andthe really light light kind of blows green.

(39:44):
Like, I dig this a lot. It's this is one of those
that I remember this cyber turning truckand just like thinking that it was awesome.
And when they when they showed thecyber truck, the actual cyber truck
that UM was being put out byTest and you could pre order, I
was like, I kind of wantto pre order it. And I was

(40:04):
like, I wonder if I couldget it painted in this color scheme,
but you can't, right, Butthat would have been cool, Yes,
it would have been. So that'syour number five, Yeah, cutouts,
it's a decent one. Yeah,yeah, my number five is one we
talked about. It's naw and it'sjust because he's just goofy and it makes

(40:27):
me laugh. Like I said,he's a shark with two legs and no
arms at least not in this picturethat I'm seeing. And I remember it
specifically from the show. And it'sjust the one. Like I said,
it's it's just weird and it andit makes me laugh and uh, kind
of like the you know, thedinosaur, the what are they called the
dints? The Dinabots is sort ofin that same vein. They're just goofy

(40:52):
and I like it, and youknow, they're just sort of pushing the
envelope with it, and it justmakes me laugh. And I like the
colors and everything about it. Hiseyes look like they would glow in the
dark. Um. So yeah,he just he makes me laugh. And
there's no reason that it that itshould work at all, and it does,
and I'm here for it. That'sthat's a that's a cool one.
I had to man, I thinkthat's a cool one. I agree,

(41:13):
Um, I like that choice.So what about your number four? So
my number four? And you haveto forgive me because I'm not looking at
it as all individuals, but I'mlooking at as one set. But it's
the combiner tron of Bruticus. No, that's that's fine, because it is
a cool It is a cool thingwhen when they're all combined together, it

(41:34):
is cool. You know that.That's fine. Yeah, I love so
on Slot. When I did haveon Slot, I absolutely loved that transformer.
I thought it was really cool thehead sculpt that comes with that and
the hands that come with that inorder to create um Bruticus, and also
the giant blast where he comes with. It's it's such a cool transformer that,

(41:58):
like I remember having on and likesearching and searching and searching for these
other pieces to put Bruticus together,and that was like one of those that
I would have really liked to havedone. It's he looks almost like an
old school like it was a Vultronthree that had like all the different vehicles
attached to him. Your guest onlyknow the Yon Vultron. Yeah, I

(42:22):
think that's Vultron two. There's likethree different vultrons. Yeah, oh I
remember throw it down in the toyl was was was a very kind of
very contentious and as a result ofthat, yes, yep, but that's
that's a very that's a very reasonableuh pick for that one, And I

(42:44):
like it and I cannot cannot fallto you at all. It is a
very cool like and uh, I'mjust I wish I had thought of it.
Yeah. So my number four isSandstorm, and it's because I love
the concept of the Triple Changers,and he's the one that works the best,
and at least his two modes lookdecent. The the the dune Buggy,

(43:07):
I think looks really cool, andwhen he's in his race car mode
and helicopter mode. The only issueI have with both of those is that
like what would be the windshield orthe canopy windscreen on them are solid like
in the cart solid orange. Onthe helicopter at solid yellow, the same
color as the plastic around it.I wish that they had given us some

(43:28):
sort of sticker or something on thatto make it look like what it is,
right, But I like the colorscheme on both and all, and
like I said, in all three, of all the Triple Changers, this
is the one to me that worksthe best. And I love the concept
of the Triple Changers. I justI wish the execution had been a little
better. But Sandstorm, to meis the coolest one and kind of reminds

(43:52):
me a little bit of Firecracker fromthe Mask line, and that's one of
my favorite toys from that line.I could see that. Yeah, Sandstorms
actually a really cool one. UMout of the triple chain changers. And
this is the one I picked frommy number three. Um, I picked
Springer, and I liked it becauseit's stillber three, that's my number three.

(44:13):
Okay, it still has well Iwas trying. Um, it still
had that very like cybertrony and lookto it. So I felt like this
fitted in with some of the otherlike uh Cybertron sort of vehicles. The
color scheme is not the best forme because of the bright yellow, but
I do love that green on grayand I think that's a cool esiesially the

(44:37):
yellow, I think the rest ofit has got a really nice color scheme
to it. Yeah. I don'tyou know. He's not bad. Um,
it's it's it's really not. Uh. Everything you said about it is
accurate. Um. But I butI do I do think uh next to
uh, next to Sandstorm. Ithink he's probably a close second on that

(45:00):
one. Um. I'm trying totrying to get a picture pulled up of
him real quick. Bear with meone second. Springer. Yeah, and
see, I don't even mind thecolor scheme. I think the color scheme
actually works pretty well. Um againfor me, maybe I should have switched

(45:23):
mind to Springer. I feel likeI'm swaying you now, No, no,
no, I actually like I don'tmind it. And see, the
thing that I liked about Springer isthat um again, in his in his
two, in his in his uhhelicopter form, they've got that the canopy
is like blue, so it lookssort of like it's like it's a canopy.

(45:46):
So I don't mind it. Ithink Springer is actually pretty cool.
I'm not gonna fought you, foughtyou, I'm not gonna fall to you
on that one. Um My numberthree is going to be scourge and this
one was. I maybe should haveput him a lit further down. The
only reason he's not higher is becauseif there is more detail to his design,

(46:06):
like either paint or stickers, hewould be much higher on the list.
Yeah, but I had to putit. I had to put scorage
on here because he's a hovercraft andI love hovercraft. He reminds me a
lot, and not so much ahovercraft as just some sort of like like
automated boat. He looks more likea boat than just a hovercraft. But
I love that design. It Thisdesign could easily also be a spaceship,

(46:31):
yes, or land speeder actually lookingat It reminds me a lot of a
land speeder. I'd dig that one. I do too. Like I said,
I like it. It's a hovercraftand I've got to have it,
you know, I've got to havehovercraft on my list. It's it's cool

(46:52):
and and I like that it looksit could conceivably be something earth bound,
right, So that's yeah, it'sit's it's my number three. Nice.
So h yeah, So what whatis your number two? We're on number
two. My number two is ahot Rod before before he becomes radamous prime.

(47:16):
Um, I picked hot Rod.I I remember looking at this um
this Transformer and just being in awe, Like I love the design of the
car and the transformer, like therobot form is not bad either, but
it was it was cool because itwas still am still a Cybertronian like car,

(47:42):
but it still had like kind ofearthy elements to it of what you
think of as like a souped upmuscle car. And I love the hot
red with the yellow and orange likeit just this would be the car that
I'd want to get if I couldhave a future car, if you could
have a car from another planet.Yeah, yeah, you know what,
And I Yeah, the toy itselfis great. My problem with hot Rod

(48:05):
is always just the character, theway he was portrayed in on the show,
in the movie and on the show. Um, he just kind of
annoyed me. But if I couldget past that, it is a really
cool toy. I can. Ican understand that completely. Yep. Kind
of reminds me of the the tshirt I've got. I've got a Marty
McFly Transformer shirt. Mesh up youdo. Oh yeah, it's the DeLorean

(48:30):
or the Time Machines. Yeah,it's it's it's like I think out of
Time is the uh is his transformername? And it kount of reminds me
of that one. I could Yeah, I could see the look which way
the two is very similar. Yeah, so I could dig it. So
that was your number two. Sothat brings me to my number two.
My number two is hot Spot,and hot Spot to me, maybe the

(48:52):
most impressive non play set, noncombiner in this wave. I just love
everything. I mean, he's partof a combiner set, but as far
as the playsets go or the regularTransformers go, I just think he's really
cool. I love the color scheme. It's an odd color scheme because you
don't normally have fire trucks that areblue, and he's like a like a

(49:15):
sky blue or almost a baby blue, and he actually has one set you
can set him out in like midtransformation, and he's like a mini like
well, I guess he's part ofthat part of the combiner, but you
can set him down like that.It almost looks like a mini playset.
And even when he's in his robotform, he still looks really cool.

(49:35):
He's one that looks like one ofthe old school Transformers from the first couple
of waves, because his legs arevery delineated, they're not straight down,
his arms movies get these big assguns, and even though he's got a
tower coming up behind him, hestill has a head that's sculpted and in
true Transformers fashion, he's got alot of color to him, but he's
also got a lot of decals thatgo on him. This one, to

(49:57):
me, feels like a Transformer,where the other ones we talked about maybe
don't feel as much like Transformers.This was pretty cool, um and I
also like like the because hot spotsa lot like onslought with the size of
it, and it's a pretty decentsize um vehicle transformation and transformer when you

(50:20):
when you transform them. The coolthing about hot Spot is I love like
when he becomes a part of defenseor he is the central piece of them,
so all that kind of cool bluebecomes the head, shoulders and top
part of the legs for everything else. And it is in that cool cool

(50:43):
almost like medical gown blue. Yeahexactly. And and since these are the
medical you know, the the thethe public service vehicles, I guess you
could say the emergency vehicles. That'swhat I was trying to say. That
makes sense. Yeah, that's acool one. I dig it a lot.
I like it a lot. Sothat brings us to your number one,

(51:04):
um my number one. And umI had to pick this of course
because I'm evil, but it iscyclonis um. I love the This almost
reminds me of the X Men's Blackbird. So it's it's that crazy okay,

(51:25):
yeah, almost a swept wings,almost a swept wing design. Yeah yeah,
but that that kind of purplish blueon like silver with like purple and
like the the red orange. Itjust looks evil. I absolutely love this
thing. Um. This is actuallyone of those that I was actually hoping

(51:47):
one day they would put out inthe anniversary set with the kind of more
traditional um like the more like hyperarticulated figure, but still within the same
jet form, because I would totallypick this one up, but I haven't
seen him come back, like eventhe head portion of Cyclonists, like have

(52:07):
a the giant almost like Deacon thestyle of fork Helm, Like I just
I really dig this design. Yeah, hot Rod's kind of the only one
that ever comes back. But butyou're right, this one is cool and
I do and I do like thatdesign. Like I said, of all
of the Cybertronian ones, this oneI think is cool. When you're right,
it does look very much like thethe VI is it the Blackbird?

(52:30):
Is that what it's called? TheBlackbird? Yeah? Yeah? Or the
night Raven the Cobra night Raven evenoh yeah, oh my god, such
a great jet SR seventy one typeof thing. Any Yeah, that that's
very cool. That is a veryworthy number one. I can get behind
that. My number one, whichmay be surprising since I mentioned that hot

(52:50):
you know, hot Spot was wasprobably the most impressive one. My number
one is Rhett Gard and I havealways like this guy. I like him
in his in his autobot form,and I like him even more in his
motorcycle form. And it's a Cybertronianmotorcycle, but it also could pass for

(53:12):
just a fancy motorcycle here on Earth. Yeah, and I mentioned Firecracker earlier
that Sandstorm reminded me of Firecracker.This one even more reminds me of Firecracker
from the Mask line. And againthat's one of my favorite vehicles from the
Mask line. And so this one, anytime you remind me of that,
it gets your points. Yeah.So I am just a real big fan

(53:35):
of of ht Gar. I thinkthat I just I don't know, I
just I just I've always liked thisguy. You know else he reminds me
of He reminds me of of JakeRockwell from The Centurions, who was my
favorite character on the Centurions as well, kind of reminds me of the wild
him with the wild Weasel. Ijust I's gonna say, I love the

(53:59):
fact that, you know, hisfront wheel becomes a shield and he has
an axe like the Yeah, hehas a very like night as sort of
a pill to him. Yes,yes, he does absolutely good call.
Yeah, I'm telling you, thisis a cool one. This is one
that I might if I if Icame across one in decent shape, I
might I might consider it. ThisI kind of wonder like because the handlebars

(54:23):
and everything are all sized up andthe seats all sized up. I wonder
if this would fit like a sixc inch action figure. It might be
a bit small. That's a problemis I think it's probably a bit large
for a three and three quarter anda bit small for a six inch.
Maybe one of the Superpowers figures wouldfit on it. Maybe the way that

(54:44):
he's constructed reminds me a lot ofPsychile from the Gobots. Oh okay,
which is not a bad thing either, because that's it. That's a cool
figure. But yeah, this oneis just really really cool. I dig
it a lot. So that's whyRed guards my number one. Okay,
which the it means it's time forbo one. It got away way way.

(55:05):
So which one of these, Taylor, Either you had in your hands
and you did you didn't pull thetrigger, or you had it then you
lost it, or you just reallywant it you never had a chance.
Well, okay, so you knowI've I've actually had in this case one
that I had parts of trying toput together. And that was the that
was was it the Bruticus one withonslaught, which I liked, but the

(55:30):
one I'm looking at more on thelines of if I could get my hands
on it at a decent price andhad this in my collection to put on
my shelf, I would totally getit and it would be one of those
things just because a color scheme andwhat it is. Um, it's trip
to con the giant Dinosaur. Okay, full and blue and grays. Um,

(55:54):
it's a Decepticons. It's a badguy. It's a giant dinosaur.
It also turns into a base.It's got a little car that that comes
with it. It just it's soover the top that I just I love
it. I really really love it. No, I can get behind that.

(56:15):
I can totally get behind that.That's a very good choice, very
good choice. M Mine is onethat I had which I've already real what
it is, and it is onethat I cannot find. It is metroplex
Um. We didn't talk a lotabout him because I want to talk about
it now. This thing is badass. Came with like a little car
that would shoot out. There's there'sokay, So if you look at him
in his robot form, his chest, his right where like where his right

(56:39):
peck would be. There's this blackpanel with like an autobot logo on it.
When he's in his battle station form, that flips open and a little
car will pop out of it.Oh cool, it's like a little bit
of garage. It's awesome. Andhe also has that. He also has

(57:00):
a smaller figure that you you piecetogether from other pieces and becomes an autobot.
So there's a car and there's alittle bitty mini tank that comes with
it as well. Oh nice.That are like the cars like a like
a scout, and the tank isjust like a defensive thing. But then
when this thing is in its battlestation form, it's it's mobile, and

(57:21):
it's just huge. And his legsbecome these these huge laser cannons. His
arms the arms of the smaller uhdroid, the smaller robot rather are the
side guns. And I just thinkthis thing is cool. And when again,
when he's in his robot form,he just looks like a stock.
He looks like a wrestler. Andhow tall Buzzy he stood about I would

(57:50):
say about twelve inches tall. Okay, maybe a little more. It's it's
a good size. It's it's notit's a good size, but it's not.
It wasn't so big that like youcouldn't story. It wasn't like the
USS flag. You know, youcould fold it up and it would,
you know, it fit just ona shelf somewhere. But yeah, this
thing is awesome. He's even gota little like a little like a sort

(58:10):
of almost a helipad on the backon either side. It's it's it's so
cool. Everything about it just works. It's so well put together, so
well thought out. It's like theyput all of their creativity into a few
of these, and this was theone that got most of the most of
the attention. Nice, Yeah,there was. It seems like they U

(58:32):
back in the early two thousands weregonna put out a new metroplex that was
a lot taller. It was supposedto be like twenty four inches and scaled
the bigger transformers. And I remembermy sister in law was supposed to bring
one to me because it was likeleft over at comic Con and never got

(58:55):
it. And I remember looking atit because it had the pop open chest
everything. I remember looking at itgoing how cool would that be. So
when I saw this metroplex here,I was thinking it was like super super
super big. But even at atwelve inch scale or a little bit taller,
I mean, that's still a prettygood sized figure compared to the other

(59:17):
Transformers that you have. You know, man, that'd be great to have.
And it turns into a base andeverything. Yeah, no, it's
great. It's it's a great greattoy, great great figure, great everything.
And like I said, I can'tbelieve that I actually had one.
And this is when I played withit a lot when I was a kid.

(59:39):
So yeah, I'm a big fan. Man. Yeah, I like
I like that a lot. Yeah, it's cool. It's very very cool.
Um. So that's it, folks. That's that's the discussion with the
line. Taylor, you have anyother thoughts for the line before we call
it a day on this one,I don't. Um. You know,
again, you were talking earlier aboutthe the jumping jumping the shark, and

(01:00:05):
I think the only time they reallyto me feel like they jumped the shark
is with the actual Shark to comShark. I cannot say it. I
keep wanting to say shark to comand I'm like, no, that's started
it either that that could that couldgo south and pardon the pun real quick.
Um, but yeah, I don'tknow. I I actually happen to

(01:00:28):
dig this line a lot. Ifeel like this is probably a very broad
line that can appeal to a lotof different Transformer fans, a lot of
the some things for O G andthen now some for movie and now some
for younger audiences. Well there's Ithink it's fun. There's a lot to
like in this line. We talkedabout it there, there really is.

(01:00:50):
There's a lot to like. Um. I like the use of the combiners.
I just wish that the execution ofmost of the smaller vehicles have been
better. Yeah, and I wishthat they had been a little less blocky,
a little less bulky. To me, that none of these looks.
Very few of these look as sleekas the ones we got in the first

(01:01:12):
two waves, and I think that'swhat I'm responding to. But they're,
like I said, there there's alot to lack of at this line.
And I hope that those of youthat are listening, uh, you know,
found some some things to agree withas well. So that will do
it for this edition. So fortalking toys with Taylor and Jeff. I'm
Taylor and I'm Jeff. Remember they'renot dolls, they're action figures, Transforming

(01:01:35):
action figures, sometimes triple changers.Who really should have just stuck with the
one? Why couldn't they have turnedinto a sharp two? I'm kidding right,
Good night, folks. Thank youfor listening. For more episodes of
this show or other Marvin Dog Mediaproductions, go to Marvin Dog Media dot
com to stream or download the shows, or to subscribe via iTunes. Email

(01:01:58):
us at Marvin Dog Media at gmaildot com. Follow us on Twitter at
Marvin dog Media. Follow us onPinterest at pinterest dot com. Forward slash
Marvin Dog Media. This podcast hasbeen a production of marvindog Media. All
rights reserved. How many times canwe say Marvin Doog Media