BotCon 2015 Exclusives

[Zobovor]

With all the excitement about the Hasbro announcements at BotCon, I had totally forgotten about the convention exclusive toys!

They had previously unveiled the "Cybertron Most Wanted" gift set which consisted of Packrat (from Generations Rattrap), Battletrap (from Generations Springer), Shattered Glass Stepper (orange Special Ops Jazz), Megatron (from Prime Breakdown), and the rather amazing Pretender Oilmaster (Generations Swerve with an all-new Pretender shell). I really do think Oilmaster is going to go down in history as one of the truly unique BotCon exclusives, right up there with the technically-unofficial Action Master Breakdown.

They produced a souvenir package based on a couple of unproduced toys from Transformers: Generation 2. Generations Roadbuster and Generations Scoop were given a redeco as General Optimus Prime and Sgt. Hound, the two Autoroller redecos that never saw the light of day. They're not really that authentic (they're not the same size as each other, and Gen. Optimus Prime was actually a dump truck) but it's a cute idea.

There was also a souvenir package meant to pay homage to the Diaclone toy line, including a red version of Generations Hoist called Lift-Ticket (borrowing a name from G.I. Joe) and a black version of Generations Skids called Burn-Out. The in-universe fiction is that these are lifeless Diaclone machines, not living robots, and the leftover Targetmaster pieces from Sgt. Hound are supposed to serve as the Diaclone pilots. Shrug.

The Diaclone machines are intended to be pitted against the Waruders 4-pack (which I've seen hilariously parsed online as "War Riders"). In the original Diaclone toy line, the Waruders were the insect-like alien bad guys. In tribute to this, they took four Generations Deluxe Waspinators and paired them with the tiny Targetmaster Waspinator that came with Legends Starscream. So, lots of bugs. Apparently they're all specific homages to various extant color schemes (one is the unproduced "Halloween Horrorcon" Waspinator, one is based on FOX Kids! Waspinator, etc.) The big bugs are named Mudfighter, Paralyzer, Parasite, and Stormrider, and the tiny bugs are named Buzzer, Crusher, Ripper, and Thrasher. (What, no Zartan or Zarana?) Conceptually it makes a lot of sense but in practice it just seems to be this big army of miscolored Waspinators. It's like the Virulent_Clones all over again. There was also another an attendee freebie that was a redeco of Generations Skrapnel called Zaptrap (which is the same name as the eHobby Diaclone-colored G1 Shrapnel reissue).

They also did some Kre-O figures of characters like Nightbird and Robot Master (from Marvel Comics) and Autobot Spike. I imagine Kre-O characters are especially easy to produce as exclusives, because all you have to do is come up with a tampograph deco. No remolding required.

It must be quite a challenge to come up with ideas for convention exclusives, year after year, while meeting all the many challenges and limitations (only certain toys are available for certain years; the expense of remolding parts; choosing names that will pass trademark registration; coming up with redecos that fans will actually want). At the end of the day, of course, the final test, for me, is whether they managed to come up with a toy that I want to own and will pay aftermarket prices for. They've managed it a few times, but not this year.


Zob

[Gustavo Wombat, of the Seattle Wombats]

On Sunday, June 28, 2015 at 11:08:22 AM UTC-7, Zobovor wrote:
> With all the excitement about the Hasbro announcements at BotCon, I had totally forgotten about the convention exclusive toys!
>
> They had previously unveiled the "Cybertron Most Wanted" gift set which consisted of Packrat (from Generations Rattrap), Battletrap (from Generations Springer), Shattered Glass Stepper (orange Special Ops Jazz), Megatron (from Prime Breakdown), and the rather amazing Pretender Oilmaster (Generations Swerve with an all-new Pretender shell). I really do think Oilmaster is going to go down in history as one of the truly unique BotCon exclusives, right up there with the technically-unofficial Action Master Breakdown.

I really sort of do want Oilmaster. Not enough to buy him for whatever he goes for, but if he were a $25 Voyager, I would pick him up and feel a little ripped off.

> They produced a souvenir package based on a couple of unproduced toys from Transformers: Generation 2. Generations Roadbuster and Generations Scoop were given a redeco as General Optimus Prime and Sgt. Hound, the two Autoroller redecos that never saw the light of day. They're not really that authentic (they're not the same size as each other, and Gen. Optimus Prime was actually a dump truck) but it's a cute idea.

Meh. The Autorollers are some of my favorite toys, and this is just non-functional, miscolored attempts at Autorollers.

> There was also a souvenir package meant to pay homage to the Diaclone toy line, including a red version of Generations Hoist called Lift-Ticket (borrowing a name from G.I. Joe) and a black version of Generations Skids called Burn-Out. The in-universe fiction is that these are lifeless Diaclone machines, not living robots, and the leftover Targetmaster pieces from Sgt. Hound are supposed to serve as the Diaclone pilots. Shrug.

Shrug indeed.

> The Diaclone machines are intended to be pitted against the Waruders 4-pack (which I've seen hilariously parsed online as "War Riders"). In the original Diaclone toy line, the Waruders were the insect-like alien bad guys. In tribute to this, they took four Generations Deluxe Waspinators and paired them with the tiny Targetmaster Waspinator that came with Legends Starscream. So, lots of bugs. Apparently they're all specific homages to various extant color schemes (one is the unproduced "Halloween Horrorcon" Waspinator, one is based on FOX Kids! Waspinator, etc.) The big bugs are named Mudfighter, Paralyzer, Parasite, and Stormrider, and the tiny bugs are named Buzzer, Crusher, Ripper, and Thrasher. (What, no Zartan or Zarana?) Conceptually it makes a lot of sense but in practice it just seems to be this big army of miscolored Waspinators. It's like the Virulent_Clones all over again.

I like these more than I think I should.

> It must be quite a challenge to come up with ideas for convention exclusives, year after year, while meeting all the many challenges and limitations (only certain toys are available for certain years; the expense of remolding parts; choosing names that will pass trademark registration; coming up with redecos that fans will actually want). At the end of the day, of course, the final test, for me, is whether they managed to come up with a toy that I want to own and will pay aftermarket prices for. They've managed it a few times, but not this year.

I think I know why I like the miscolored Waspinators. I want a set of Seekers. I want some stuff set in the original BW pack-in comic timeline, where Optimus Prime was a bat, and G1 Megatron was an alligator. I want Starscream, Thrust and Skywarp as wasps...

Here's the set:

- Ironhide: Generations Rhinox, in red. I guess all the interior parts could be red, with the exterior being gray, matching Fox Kids Ironhide, and still being a little Ironhidey, but I kind of like it the other way around.

- Starscream, see above. White, with red wings, blue legs and yellow eyes.

- Shrapnel: Dig out the old Classics Bumblebee mold, and position the waverider wings straight up in robot mode. Vehicles are beasts and beasts are vehicles! It's so confusing!

- Megatron: Cybertron Beast Megatron, in gray, with a lot of silver painted details, and some black trim on the dino head to give us a slight callback to his black cannon.

- Optimus: BM Blast Punch Optimus Primal, painted up to look like Primal Prime? Skip the character entirely?

Bonus toys: Thundercracker and Skywarp!

Alternatives:
- Megatron could be Beast Hunters Ripclaw, with the Spark Extractor tail suggesting Beast Machines. I would leave him mostly gray and silver, but make the wings green (reminiscent of Classics Megatron's wings). Ok, fine, red is Megatron's traditional secondary color.

- Arcee, from TF:Animated Blackarachnia. There is some precedence for this, alas.

Optimus is a problem since we have to go so far back to get a toy that matches him at all. Cybertron Beast Optimus Prime is not great and has already had a turn as BW Optimus, so he seems boring. Cybertron Liobreaker already had an Optimus color scheme and a Lio Prime. I suppose the Oilmaster mold could be brought back...

[Cappeca]

Em domingo, 28 de junho de 2015 15:08:22 UTC-3, Zobovor escreveu:
> They also did some Kre-O figures of characters like Nightbird and Robot Master (from Marvel Comics) and Autobot Spike. I imagine Kre-O characters are especially easy to produce as exclusives, because all you have to do is come up with a tampograph deco. No remolding required.
>

I'm into Kreo big time, and since I have the huge ego of a 10 year old, I'm pretty sure they did this set at the last minute, and had the idea for Robot Master from a custom I made a couple months ago posted on tfw2005.

[Irrellius Spamticon of the Potato People.]

Oilmaster does look cool, but maybe $20-30 cool. I might pick up Rattrap if I see it at Marshall's for $6.99, but I don't see a purple rat as being a must-have.

[Zobovor]

On Monday, June 29, 2015 at 2:44:27 AM UTC-6, Gustavo Wombat, of the Seattle Wombats wrote:

> Meh. The Autorollers are some of my favorite toys, and this is just non-
> functional, miscolored attempts at Autorollers.

I might have actually wanted Scoop if they'd colored him greenish-yellow and named him Roadblock. I really dig me some G2 homage toys. Of course, then we'd need a Dirtbag to go with him, and there really haven't been any good dump trucks recently. You'd have to go waaay way back and do, like, Energon Powerlinx Demolishor or whatever the hell that toy's name was. And even that would be kind of a let-down.

> I think I know why I like the miscolored Waspinators. I want a set of
> Seekers. I want some stuff set in the original BW pack-in comic timeline,
> where Optimus Prime was a bat, and G1 Megatron was an alligator. I want
> Starscream, Thrust and Skywarp as wasps...

I dunno. I would have gotten excited about that during the Beast Wars days, because any G1-flavored bone that they threw was delicious and savory. (S'why I loved Machine Wars so much, despite being a tiny toy line full of repaints of toys that didn't look anything like the characters.)

> - Ironhide: Generations Rhinox, in red.

I am having so much trouble talking about Ironhide in Beast Wars and not picturing the Magnaboss elephant. Okay, a red rhino. I can deal with that. No worse than purple dinosaurs.

> - Starscream, see above. White, with red wings, blue legs and yellow eyes.

I will say that I absolutely loved it when you could play as Waspinator in the Transmetals video game and you could customize his colors to look like Starscream. So perhaps I would have liked something like this.

> - Optimus: BM Blast Punch Optimus Primal, painted up to look like Primal
> Prime? Skip the character entirely?

I think you're missing the obvious move. 1996 Ultra Optimus Primal in classic Optimus Prime colors. REDD ANMD BLEU MUNKEY NOT TRUKK!

> - Arcee, from TF:Animated Blackarachnia. There is some precedence for this,
> alas.

Yeah, it's kind of been done. And it was stupid.


Zob (still thinks Transmetal 2 Sonar makes a halfway decent G1 Cyclonus)

[Zobovor]

On Monday, June 29, 2015 at 4:05:13 AM UTC-6, Cappeca wrote:

> I'm into Kreo big time, and since I have the huge ego of a 10 year old, I'm
> pretty sure they did this set at the last minute, and had the idea for Robot
> Master from a custom I made a couple months ago posted on tfw2005.

It's certainly possible! Look at how many Punch-Counterpunch toys people made out of Universe Sunstreaker (answer: a lot) until there was finally an official version.


Zob (you can't copyright an idea, so...)

[mathewi...@gmail.com]

I picked up the SG Waspinator colored Waruder and the General Optimus Prime and Sergeant Hound pretty cheap on ebay. Still waiting for the price to drop on some others.

Mathew

[Gustavo Wombat, of the Seattle Wombats]

On Monday, June 29, 2015 at 5:08:29 PM UTC-7, Zobovor wrote:
> On Monday, June 29, 2015 at 2:44:27 AM UTC-6, Gustavo Wombat, of the Seattle Wombats wrote:
>
> > I think I know why I like the miscolored Waspinators. I want a set of
> > Seekers. I want some stuff set in the original BW pack-in comic timeline,
> > where Optimus Prime was a bat, and G1 Megatron was an alligator. I want
> > Starscream, Thrust and Skywarp as wasps...
>
> I dunno. I would have gotten excited about that during the Beast Wars days, because any G1-flavored bone that they threw was delicious and savory. (S'why I loved Machine Wars so much, despite being a tiny toy line full of repaints of toys that didn't look anything like the characters.)

The original premise for BW, as depicted in that one pack-in comic, was insane and terrible, and was correctly dropped for something better.

But some part of me wants to see the bad ideas trotted out from time to time, and given a little love.

> > - Ironhide: Generations Rhinox, in red.
>
> I am having so much trouble talking about Ironhide in Beast Wars and not picturing the Magnaboss elephant. Okay, a red rhino. I can deal with that. No worse than purple dinosaurs.

Magnaboss's other two components got their names reused, so I assume it is only reasonable to reuse Ironhide's name.

> > - Starscream, see above. White, with red wings, blue legs and yellow eyes.
>
> I will say that I absolutely loved it when you could play as Waspinator in the Transmetals video game and you could customize his colors to look like Starscream. So perhaps I would have liked something like this.

> > - Optimus: BM Blast Punch Optimus Primal, painted up to look like Primal
> > Prime? Skip the character entirely?
>
> I think you're missing the obvious move. 1996 Ultra Optimus Primal in classic Optimus Prime colors. REDD ANMD BLEU MUNKEY NOT TRUKK!

I think there is some kind of limit to how far back they can go with molds. I don't know what that limit is, but I think 20 years might be pushing it.

But it they could bring it out again, I would really want an Ultra Magnus out of that mold. He would be a Yeti, and that would be AWESOME! Ultra Mammoth was funny, but he's no Yeti.

> > - Arcee, from TF:Animated Blackarachnia. There is some precedence for this,
> > alas.
>
> Yeah, it's kind of been done. And it was stupid.

The entire notion of making G1 robots into beasts is dumb! But here, it would at least make some sense in context. (And I guess we would then need a Springer out of either a frog or the rabbit mold...)

[Zobovor]

On Friday, July 3, 2015 at 7:23:27 PM UTC-6, Gustavo Wombat, of the Seattle Wombats wrote:

> The original premise for BW, as depicted in that one pack-in comic, was
> insane and terrible, and was correctly dropped for something better.

I don't know. In some ways it was pretty much a natural progression of what was happening near the end of G2. The war had gotten so out of control that transformation integrity just went eight out the window. Optimus was a McDonald's-colored truck! Optimus was a race car! Optimus was a dump truck! Optimus was a bat!

> I think there is some kind of limit to how far back they can go with molds. I
> don't know what that limit is, but I think 20 years might be pushing it.

As long as the molds are still in good repair (and Hasbro can actually figure out which factory actually has them) I don't see age being a factor. (We're getting a Trypticon reissue, and he's 29 years old...)

> But it they could bring it out again, I would really want an Ultra Magnus out
> of that mold. He would be a Yeti, and that would be AWESOME!

Hell yeah. I wasn't at all interested in Ultra Mammoth, but I would buy the hell out of Ultra Mandrill.

> The entire notion of making G1 robots into beasts is dumb! But here, it would
> at least make some sense in context. (And I guess we would then need a
> Springer out of either a frog or the rabbit mold...)

Good gravy, I think I would actually buy a green rabbit named Springer.

The problem with translating some of the G1 characters to beast modes is that a lot of their names were metaphors. Turning Bumblebee into an actual bumblebee or Hound into an actual dog is, well, like having a scooter named Scooter or a tank named Tank.

Soundwave as a kangaroo with all his little joeys in his pouch? I'm sure somebody, somewhere, has already come up with this idea.


Zob

[Gustavo Wombat, of the Seattle Wombats]

On Friday, July 3, 2015 at 9:28:31 PM UTC-7, Zobovor wrote:
> On Friday, July 3, 2015 at 7:23:27 PM UTC-6, Gustavo Wombat, of the Seattle Wombats wrote:
>
> > The original premise for BW, as depicted in that one pack-in comic, was
> > insane and terrible, and was correctly dropped for something better.
>
> I don't know. In some ways it was pretty much a natural progression of what was happening near the end of G2. The war had gotten so out of control that transformation integrity just went eight out the window. Optimus was a McDonald's-colored truck! Optimus was a race car! Optimus was a dump truck! Optimus was a bat!

Sometimes the natural progression is to something terrible.

> > I think there is some kind of limit to how far back they can go with molds. I
> > don't know what that limit is, but I think 20 years might be pushing it.
>
> As long as the molds are still in good repair (and Hasbro can actually figure out which factory actually has them) I don't see age being a factor. (We're getting a Trypticon reissue, and he's 29 years old...)

Trypticon was used again in BW II, give or take, so his mold was found and cleaned up.

But, if all the molds are available, then we might be able to make a more awesome set...

Surely a Transmetal 2 Skunk could be blue with red stripes, and have the number 38 on his side?

And, as much as I hate the Polar Claw mold, if he were painted up like a panda, he could represent a black and white police car... Although, Prowl didn't have that distinctive pattern, so maybe a Movie Barricade. BEARICADE!

Maybe Swindle out of Cheetor, because he's a cheat'a.

> > But it they could bring it out again, I would really want an Ultra Magnus out
> > of that mold. He would be a Yeti, and that would be AWESOME!
>
> Hell yeah. I wasn't at all interested in Ultra Mammoth, but I would buy the hell out of Ultra Mandrill.

Not the B'Boom mold, the Ultra Optimus Primal mold. I'm pretty sure yetis are more like apes than mandrills. Also, that mold would just be amazing as a yeti.

> > The entire notion of making G1 robots into beasts is dumb! But here, it would
> > at least make some sense in context. (And I guess we would then need a
> > Springer out of either a frog or the rabbit mold...)
>
> Good gravy, I think I would actually buy a green rabbit named Springer.
>
> The problem with translating some of the G1 characters to beast modes is that a lot of their names were metaphors. Turning Bumblebee into an actual bumblebee or Hound into an actual dog is, well, like having a scooter named Scooter or a tank named Tank.

Clearly some effort must be made to ensure that things remain slightly clever, or else it would end up in Shattered Glass level of stupidity.

I so want Bearicade.

No, those two statements are not contradicting one another.

[Zobovor]

On Sunday, July 5, 2015 at 3:20:34 AM UTC-6, Gustavo Wombat, of the Seattle Wombats wrote:

> Surely a Transmetal 2 Skunk could be blue with red stripes, and have the
> number 38 on his side?

That would not be completely horrible.

> And, as much as I hate the Polar Claw mold, if he were painted up like a
> panda, he could represent a black and white police car... Although, Prowl
> didn't have that distinctive pattern, so maybe a Movie Barricade. BEARICADE!

Okay, that's even more awesome than Barbearian.

> Clearly some effort must be made to ensure that things remain slightly
> clever, or else it would end up in Shattered Glass level of stupidity.

We certainly can't have that.


Zob (insert witty comment here)

[Shin Hibiki]

Zobovor <zm...@aol.com> wrote:

>I might have actually wanted Scoop if they'd colored him greenish-yellow and named him Roadblock. I really dig me some G2 homage toys.

You know that was actually done, right...?

http://www.bigbadtoystore.com/bbts/product.aspx?product=TAK12038&mode=retail

- Shin Hibiki

----
The race ain't over yet, baby
It's only just begun
They thought they had it won, baby
But soon we'll have 'em on the run

[Zobovor]

On Thursday, July 9, 2015 at 12:39:37 AM UTC-6, Shin Hibiki wrote:

>> if they'd colored him greenish-yellow and named him Roadblock.
>

> You know that was actually done, right...?

I remembered seeing pictures of the Takara redeco, but I'd assumed that was a Scrapper homage. Roadblock wasn't green and purple!


Zob

[Irrellius Spamticon of the Potato People.]

On Thursday, July 9, 2015 at 1:39:37 AM UTC-5, Shin Hibiki wrote:
> You know that was actually done, right...?
>
> http://www.bigbadtoystore.com/bbts/product.aspx?product=TAK12038&mode=retail
>
> - Shin Hibiki
>

What is that second picture supposed to be?

[Zobovor]

On Thursday, July 9, 2015 at 10:34:36 PM UTC-6, Irrellius Spamticon of the Potato People. wrote:

> What is that second picture supposed to be?

I think it's an exciting picture of the character in mid-transformation.

Or perhaps the result of a traffic accident.


Zob (or both)