BotCon 2015 theme revealed

Ancillary, non-main-line stuff. Star Wars TF, Speed Stars, Titanium Series, Robot Heroes, that sort of thing. They're kinda neat, but we all know they're not really that important. Admit it, you know it's true.
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Dominic
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BotCon 2015 theme revealed

Post by Dominic »

https://twitter.com/BotCon

Somebody else posted this to our front page.

I like how the advertising points out the cliche that each of the characters will be based on.

The real question is will the 2015 issue of "TimeLines" manage to be worse than Scioli's output for 2015?

(Honestly, I have given up on the idea of talking about good comics in this section. It happens so rarely that it is best to keep expectations low.)
Last edited by Dominic on Tue Mar 31, 2015 12:49 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: BotCon 2015 theme revealed

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I posted it. I don't have much of an opinion yet, other than "cliched", but it has to be better than pirates versus knights.
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Re: BotCon 2015 theme revealed

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The "Pirates v/s Knights" comic was bad enough (being a cargo cult "More than Meets the Eye") that it made me not want the Ferak figure.

(Just as well, considering that I have yet to pick up the Seekers from the 2013 set.)
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Re: BotCon 2015 theme revealed

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Dominic wrote:I like how the advertising points out the cliche that each of the characters will be based on.
Remember when one of the motivating factors of convention-exclusive figures was to get unique, interesting characters of the type that wouldn't normally come out at retail? When was the last time we got somebody like, say, Fractyl?

At any rate, this is already a pretty transparent coattail-riding of the 'Guardians of the Galaxy' movie.
Dominic wrote:The "Pirates v/s Knights" comic was bad enough (being a cargo cult "More than Meets the Eye") that it made me not want the Ferak figure.
My copy should be in in a week or two. I haven't been this excited for a terrible comic in some time. (The best part has been all the reviews and discussion immediately recognizing its blatant pandering to the MTMTE base, and noting just how badly it FAILED at and for doing so)
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Re: BotCon 2015 theme revealed

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Remember when one of the motivating factors of convention-exclusive figures was to get unique, interesting characters of the type that wouldn't normally come out at retail? When was the last time we got somebody like, say, Fractyl?

At any rate, this is already a pretty transparent coattail-riding of the 'Guardians of the Galaxy' movie.
A big part of my (diminishing) reluctance to sell Fractyl and Packrat is due to how unique the characters are. (How many 'Con geologists are there?)

3H was not consistently great. But, they tried harder than Fun Publications. And, they generally came across as less fannish.


"Just like that movie you liked last year, but with Transformers in it" is exactly the sort of thing that ruins a property.
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Re: BotCon 2015 theme revealed

Post by Dominic »

And, in an ironic twist (right after Prowl and I were talking about Fractyl), Packrat is announced as one of this year's exclusives.

Commence "adding to what we know" discussion.

The thief: Packrat ("Generations" Rattrap).
The muscle:
The boss:
The bounty hunter:
The loose cannon:

We can assume "Dark Cybertron" moulds. Guessing the Tankor mould as "the muscle".

Assume 1 Voyager, 1 Ultra and 3 Deluxe.
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Re: BotCon 2015 theme revealed

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Dominic wrote:And, in an ironic twist (right after Prowl and I were talking about Fractyl), Packrat is announced as one of this year's exclusives.
FunPub doing Packrat from new Rattrap was a given ever since that mold came out. You could argue that they're obligated to make a new Fractyl to go with it, but it's not strictly necessary. I do find it funny that FunPub is asking fans to 'replace' an expensive, special, collector's figure, not to mention one that just happened to be made by their predecessors.

Odds of Packrat being written as a gross rip-off of Rocket Raccoon in the comic?
We can assume "Dark Cybertron" moulds. Guessing the Tankor mould as "the muscle".
Because FunPub is nothing, if not creative. This *would* give them the opportunity to finally crank out a Timelines Quake figure (though part of the appeal of that one was that the character model was also based on the Tankor toy model, and thus looked pretty unique from the show character).

Roadbuster might be an option for 'muscle' as well.
Assume 1 Voyager, 1 Ultra and 3 Deluxe.
Are there even any Ultra molds to work from now?

Smart money's on them using either the Windblade or Arcee molds (they've already milked the Chromia/TFP Arcee mold dry).

Cybershark from Sky-Byte would be amusingly recursive.

I hope to god they don't end up using that lackluster Bumblebee mold.

Brace yourselves for next year when it's ALL G2 COMBINERS ALL THE TIME!
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Re: BotCon 2015 theme revealed

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FunPub doing Packrat from new Rattrap was a given ever since that mold came out. You could argue that they're obligated to make a new Fractyl to go with it, but it's not strictly necessary.
There is also no appropriate mould.

I do find it funny that FunPub is asking fans to 'replace' an expensive, special, collector's figure, not to mention one that just happened to be made by their predecessors.
Nobody is being asked to replace anything. It is not like collectors are obligated to dispose of their old Packrat figures.
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Re: BotCon 2015 theme revealed

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Dominic wrote:Nobody is being asked to replace anything. It is not like collectors are obligated to dispose of their old Packrat figures.
Yeah, I'm sure they want you to have original Packrat and Packrat HD right next to each other.

The implications are exactly the same as, well, as when Hasbro rolled out the new Rattrap (or Waspinator, or Jetfire, or...). "Thought that old toy was cool? Eat a dick, it sucks now, buy this cooler new version!"

Because the old version of Packrat was just in desperate need of updating. It lacked a lot of articulation-er, I mean, the paint job wasn't that nice-wait, no, um...

If this was actually representing a new 'form' for Packrat, like the Transmetal version did (one of the earliest examples of 'repurposing'), I could see it. But it's not. Like I said, just...Packrat HD. A slightly bigger, slightly nicer version. Woo...
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Re: BotCon 2015 theme revealed

Post by Dominic »

What the hell are you talking about. Even if a sensible person (or myself for that matter) bought that line of thinking about Jetfire and other mass release figures (which I do not), this is a completely different situation.

Packrat was part of a convention exclusive set 15+ years ago, a time when "convention exclusive" often mean "you ain't getting one. Assuming that nobody has two or more Packrats (which I know for a fact was not the case 5 years ago), there are no more than 300 people who have Packrat. Fewer still have a complete Fractyl and Packrat set, as roughly 30 Fractyls were lost to production errors. Those numbers are only slightly better than the numbers for the custom class figures (which are rare enough that even Lewis Brooks does not "count" them).

(Believe you me, this is a huge part of why I hesitated for so long to sell my Fractyl and Packrat.)

That 300 (or 270) needs to be further reduced. A good portion of the people who were buying BotCon exclusives in the 90s are guys like Lewis Brooks or Fred (of the Workshop). Those guys do *not* sell hard to replace parts of their collections. (Not getting personal, but I know that both of them allocate space for their collections that is comparable to some apartments.)


In other words, maybe it is better to look at this as a Packrat for the people who did not get one 15+ years ago? And, it is not like the character shows up often. So, if Packrat shows up in this year's comics, might it not make sense to release a new toy of Packrat? (That comic being good or not is another topic entirely.)
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