Scaleface

Third party Transformers news for the week ending November 8th, 2014. Includes the latest news from AllFun Toys, Ark Studios, Dr. Wu, Keith's Fantasy Club, Master Made, Play With This Too and TFC Toys. Screen shot this week is of Shogun Warrior Raydeen toy.

A interview with Keith from ACToys revealed a picture of a recolor/remold of their Crash Hog (not MP Wreck-Gar) done as Cy-Kill. This figure will stand 23cm tall, so technically guys like MP Starscream, Soundwave or X-Transbots Apollyon could ride him!

Final product images of AllFun Toys Titanium Saints Alpha Trion have been posted online by the manufacturer. This figure is a Classic scale transforming Alpha Trion homage that turns into a space ship. It can be seen here compared with some other figures like MP10 Optimus Prime, KFC Transistor, X-Transbots Ollie and FansProject Car Crash.

Brought to you by Retro Robot Radio and TFormers.com. this a a special treat, Attack of the Decepticons was released as a long playing record and cassette back in 1985. There was no story book, just the record or tape. The Decepticons are attacking oil tankers, but the Autobots have a plan to trick them!

Celebrating 600 likes on Facebook, Play With This Too posted images of Desolataur's Tech Drone, called D-Mon, and his weapon. http://playwiththistoo.com/

Third party Transformers news for the week ending November 1st, 2014. 1000 subscribers! Hurray! Thanks everyone. Includes the latest news from BMOG Toys, Bold Forms, G-Creation, Keith's Fantasy Club, Mastermind Creations, MasterShooter Collectibles, Play With This Too, Toyworld, Unique Toys, Vs. Forge, Warbotron and X-Transbots. Screen shot this week is of the drones 4Q2 and Artee Deco from the 1978 short film, Hardware Wars.

New detailed images of Goldminer were released this morning, showing off all the features of Goldminer and his Tech Drone. The drone can become a backpack for Goldminer, a scout car, robot or combine with Goldminer's weapons for several cool configurations, including as an auger. Check out the images!

Tweeted by Play With This Too this morning is a recolor of their Jetstrike figure (formerly known as Jetwash) which is said to be a Kickstarter exclusive recolor called Flarestrike. This figure is highly reminiscent of Pretender Starscream, but done in the colors of G1 Sunstorm. http://en.wikialpha.org/wiki/Jetstrike_%28Play_With_This_Too%29 According to Play With This Too's head Rik Alvarez, Jetstrike and Flarestrike are members of the Strikers team, and we may see more, but the only way you can get Flarestrike is by participating in their Kickstarter campaign in February 2015. http://playwiththistoo.com/products/

Revealed at Rhode Island Comic Con. this weekend is a remold and recolor of Astroblast who looks a lot like Cloudburst's partner Landmine (aka Masterforce Lander!) This yellow, red, and grey version of the mold features new weapons (sword, drill, rifle), new helmet and a new Tech Drone robot who looks a lot like the inner robot on Pretender Landmine.

The third figure in the Play With This Too lineup is a monster named Bloodbath. The main figure is a non-transforming, but highly articulated 6 in ch tall figure. He is described as a vampire monster, and he comes with a transforming Tech Drone companion who becomes weapons for the monster.

Revealed at WikiAlpha.org today is Play With This Too's heroic flyer Jetwash. You may recognize the armor as being inspired by Pretender Starscream, while his Tech Drone buddy is inspired by the GoBot Fitor. http://en.wikialpha.org/wiki/Jetwash_%28Play_With_This_Too%29 Jetwash is one of the new line of highly posable 6 in tall figures coming from Play With This Too, and should be part of their upcoming Kickstarter campaign in early 2015. You can learn more about Play With This Too at their web site. http://playwiththistoo.com/

Check out the Rik Alvarez interview about his upcoming Play With This Too toys at RetroRobotRadio. Includes the slides of his figures shown at TFcon Chicago 2014.

Just tweeted from Play With This Too is a new teaser for an upcoming figure, I think he wants to drink you BLOOD. If this is who I think it is, he should be a highly articulated 6 inch figure with numerous heads, hands and weapons. The weapons should combinie into a Tech Drone partner. As seen in the photo BOMB on the design chart for Desolataur, this bat-like monster will BURST on to the scene at TFcon, probably tommorrow at the third party panel.

Do you remember the children's audiobooks of the 80s? Well, Transformers didn't have the monopoly on wars between transforming aliens robots... there was also the GoBots! You think Megatron was the only evil alien robot dictator out to take over (or alternately destroy) the Earth each week with a crazy plan? Meet Cy-Kill and his minion Crasher! They want to use Haley's Comet to defeat the Earth. Who can stop them and save the world? Well, the heroic GoBots Dumper and Spay-C will give it a try! Retro Robot Radio and TFormers.com brings you another obscure chapter in the fiction of transforming robots with Robo Machine Presents: Challenge of the Gobots - Collision Course Comet!

Recently disovered in the background art on the Play With This Too web site by fans, there are images of a Landmine homage character. When this was posted on message boards Rik Alvarez of PWTT commented "Finally somebody found one of our easter eggs. We pepper them throughout most of our announcements..." The figure seems to be a combination of parts seen on the Play With This Too figure Astroblast and Deep Earth Explorer, as well as original parts. You can see the sword and smaller/inner robot images that look like Landmind in these enhanced background photos.

Exclusive to TFcon Chicago 2014 is the MasterShooter Collectibles Criminal Investigation set. Includes the evil Hustler (not Armada Swindle) and the heroic Detective Ballgag (not Muzzle), transforming weapon partnets for Generations Deluxe Starscream and Nighbeat.

Third party Transformers news for the week ending October 18th, 2014. Includes the latest news from Ark Studio, Badcube, Before and After, DMY, HeeroToysMaker, Keith's Fantasy Club, Maketoys, MasterShooter Collectibles, Planet X and Play With This Too. Heerotoysmaker Megatron add-on: http://www.heerotoys.com/goods.php?id=137 TFcon Chicago 2014 information can be found at http://www.tfcon.com/ Screen shot this week is of one of the Armada robots from the 2013 film Atlantic Rim.

New image of the packaging and render of the robot, plus news on it having metallic finish. It will also appear at TFcon.

Third party Transformers news for the week ending October 11th, 2014. Includes the latest news from Dawgstar, Dr. Wu, DX9 Toys, Impossible Toys, Maketoys, Mastermind Creations, MasterShooter Collectibles, and Play With This Too. The Pow Wow Show interview with Rik Alvarez: http://thepowwowshow.net/rik-alvarez-play-with-this-too/ Shattered Cast Uncut interview with Rik Alvarez: TFYPL interview with Rik Alvarez: TFcon Chicago 2014 information can be found at http://www.tfcon.com/ Screen shot this week is of of the Bubo from the 1981 film Clash of the Titans.

Rik Alvarez was interviewed in episode 125 of TFYLP. Sadly the audio is VERY choppy. Sometimes it was hard to follow as there are words missing from the audio, and sections went quiet, but I did my best to follow it. Starts with Rik introducing himself. They talk about design constraints working for big companies. What we are seeing from PWTT was designed a long while ago, leading up to the Kickstarter. One host wanted to see spring loaded gimmicks. Rik says they won't have giant gimmick weapons, which are for kids, like Mech Tek. They will have detail and 5mm ports which are worked into the design, not obvious eyesores like Armada. The tech drone on Astroblast is made up of a shield, rifle and backpack for the big robot. They become a jet or a robot, and are assembled like a BMOG. The hosts couldn't seem to get that Rik can't call them homages to TF characters, calling it a Pretenders line and asking for a Metalhawk. Rik says he doesn't know who that is... but did say he has a cool jet character coming. In fiction the tech drones are robot companions. There is a big writer coming that will make people take this company seriously. The tech drone can swap parts? There might be something like build-a-figure coming. 10 characters are coming. There will be additional repaints and Kickstarter exclusives. (example: Astroblast in green and orange). There may be licensed toys in 2016, but right now no plans for a vehicle or play set. Talk about them announcing Ken Christiansen. They go over his experience. Mark Wong, who did Minimates and Thundercats. Big TF fan. Steve Redinger, who gets work done fast. Was at Hasbro for 28 years. There was talk about how Hasbro let people go with no reason or warning who loved the company and it's lines. Rik says they want to keep the price of the figures as affordable as possible. (Audio then cuts out completely for a bit.) They ask about Rik's best memories at Hasbro. Rik talks about his work on an MMOG from China. He made a bible for it. (more technical difficulties) Rik talks about a meeting that went very late in China. Rik is a huge Beast Wars fan, but his favorite character is Optimus. Asked truck or monkey? Truck, but Rik credits Beast Wars with keeping Transformers alive. Rik says he liked the Vehicons in Beast Machines, and that's why he got them into TFPrime, because he wanted Decepticon army builders. Play With This Too will offer art to the fandom. They asked for fan artists to email them. They want to reach out to the fans. They are thinking of having fans design head shots. TFYLP asks how they plan to distribute. After the Kickstarter they plan to sell through the usual online retailers, who have already reached out to them. TFYLP asks if they will do a Matty Collector subscription service, and Rik says it would be a logistical nightmare, so no. Asked if they will do convention/store exclusives... they have already been approached asking for those. They just need to get through the Kickstarter first. Every major character will come with a tech drone, except maybe some troop builders. TFYLP asks how the tech drones change. Whip has 5mm ports. Rifle becomes nose piece of jet. Shield makes the wings and chest. TFYLP wants to know if the tech drone "parts forms"... Rik wants toys that look cool posing, parts forming doesn't bother him if done correctly. Looking at Desolataur, it will have ball joints and hinges. It will be 6 inches tall. The heads pop off, and you can swap them with a He-Man or (word missing) character heads. TFYPL asks about the name Skull-FCKR. They think it looks like Predator or Diablo. Rik made the name. Madwing is a pilot named after his daughter. Head Shots Vol 2, TFYLP says Xando looks like a hammerhead shark alien. Rik wants to have head packs, like some companies make weapon packs. The hands on his figures will be interchangeable, and there will be a 5mm port hand (I asked for that!) They ask Rik what he thinks of other companies. He has a lot of "indy toys", he mentions Scoria, Quakewave and KFC tapes. TFYLP asks Rik about preventing defects at Hasbro. Rik didn't do that at Hasbro. When PWTT has a defective part (which can happen to anyone) how will they address it? They will do the best they can to make it right. Check out PWTT's social media pages, and they will be at TFcon Chicago with reveals. MY PERSONAL THOUGHTS: I'd love "troop builders" to be tech drones, not 6 inch figures, as I want lots of those guys. Give me a 4 pack of tech drones that can be assembled into limb extensions that boost 6 inch figures into a super-mode. I'd also love to see some BMOG designs just fall into the PWTT fiction, because the BMOG are supposed to be spread out into different dimensions, so they should be in the PWTT universe too. I don't mind parts forming, as long as all the parts have a place in every mode. I think of it as "combining" the backpack, gun and shield combine into a robot, what's wrong with that? I do hope we see some non-humanoid designs (big figures or drones). 5mm hand ports could lead to Trap-jaw/B.A.T. style weapon hands. I also wouldn't mind seeing homages created by parts swapping by the fans. For instance if someone put together an orange and green 6 inch body, you could swap on the head from a MOTU Man-At-Arms. Seems like with enough swappable parts and recolors, fans could make their own homages of anyone... I'd love to make guys who looked like Earth Corps, Man-Tech, Centurions, Pretenders, Spaceknights of Galador, etc., by mixing and matching parts rather than having each figure be a specific homage to them.

Based on the same design as DX9's earlier announced GoBot Craser homage, Invisible is an homage to G1 Mirage that stands as tall as MP Lambor and Prowl. If DX9's recent releases are any indication, this toy will have chrome pieces and rubber tires. http://www.bigbadtoystore.com/bbts/product.aspx?product=dx10003&mode=retail&utm_source=Marketing&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Marketing&utm_content=

Shattered Cast Uncut interviewed Rik Alvarez about Play With This Too. Some adult content in the rest of the show. Interview starts at about 18 minutes in. Rik talks about his hire and leaving of Hasbro, mentioning the events of the Hub channel and the Battleship movie, how his whole Haslab department was let go after Botcon 2012. They were responsible for making story bibles, art work and pitches for things like the Fall of Cybertron game, Dark of the Moon, Age of Extinction and TFPrime. He then talks about how the retail stores are pushing the toy companies to make very cheap, simple, kid friendly toys, which is nice for kids, but then teen and adult collectors are left with no one developing for them... which is where small independent companies can fill the void. Rik briefly talks about IP. He mentions that Hasbro isn't giving him any special scrutiny. While his companies designs are original, that there are no 100% original ideas, everything is somewhat derivative. He says since his people worked at Hasbro, they know just where IP lines need to be drawn and not crossed with their own designs. He talks briefly about the Head Shots. He says he named Vol 1. Mad Wing is named after Rik's daughter. There will be fiction for this series, and they will announce who is writing it at TFcon. There will be bio cards, and possibly more fiction depending on what they can afford. The Kickstarter will be making two initial figures, and those figures will be in Kickstarter exclusive colors. You can probably get the same figures later in retail in different colors, but if you want the exclusives, contribute to the Kickstarter. When the Kickstarter launches they will have about 10 characters designed, plus repaints and Head Shots. Some talk about why GI Joe has nearly disappeared (blame it on Halo and Call of Duty being more realistic, and Hasbro not willing to go there with GI Joe). PWTT has hired one fan artist, will be announced later.

Word is that the designer is working on a Kickstarter to get the project produced!

Just an information update, people who ordered Ripper are getting shipping notices and tracking numbers sent to their emails. Also, in-hand pictures of Ripper have appeared online, including a fan-bird mode, that makes him look like Generation 1 Cutthroat.

Third party Transformers news for the week ending October 4th, 2014. Includes the latest news from Badcube, Beezleboss, Before and After, Dawgstar, FansProject, GCI, GCreation, Guilty, Keith's Fantasy Club, Maketoys, Play With This Too, SXS and Unique Toys. Screen shot this week is of of the Marvin from the 1981 miniseries The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.