TF Views

Botcon tweets a pic of the "Customizers class figure" http://www.seibertron.com/transformers/ ... one/27680/

Spoiler

It's called Blastcharge

Going a little deep to the well on that Warpath mold all of a sudden. And why is he carrying an Autobot flag when he's a Vehicon character originally?

I'm going to Botcon it looks like, although there's a chance I won't make it, I may have a lung infection from the guy I bought tires from, we'll see.

If you have a lung infection, you definitely need to go to BotCon and open mouth kiss a few Hasbro reps. ("This is what you get for slipping on design and quality control!")

I am just hoping that the rumoured Rain Maker set is just a rumour. (I had to think about buying blind bag Kreons yesterday, and even left a few behind. I cannot even justify thinking about BotCon exclusives right now.)

The custom class figure is always a mould mate with one of the other figures in the set. And, it is usually a popular mould, as is the case this year.

Fun Publications is likely duplicating the gimmick for Stryka and Obsidian on to Blast Charge.

In the original cartoon, they were less loyal to Megatron and the Vehicons than they were loyal to Cybertron as an institution. They were not faction based. Fun Publications has warped that in to "they were Autobots before they were Vehicons". And, they are likely applying that same logic to Blast Charge, despite the character's only other appearances being in an old 3H comic and the character profile on the package. Neither give any indication about what Blast Charge before he was a Vehicon.


The subscription figures running late would be more acceptable if laziness were not par for course witih Fun Publications. At this rate, I may bet my Breakdown well after I find a job. (I pre-ordered it through a friend. In theory, I could cancel and get my money back. But, if worse comes to worse, my best bet is probably to take the figure and sell it if need be.)



---Dollar Wary Dom....

In the original cartoon, they were less loyal to Megatron and the Vehicons than they were loyal to Cybertron as an institution. They were not faction based. Fun Publications has warped that in to "they were Autobots before they were Vehicons". And, they are likely applying that same logic to Blast Charge, despite the character's only other appearances being in an old 3H comic and the character profile on the package. Neither give any indication about what Blast Charge before he was a Vehicon.

To be fair, if we're strictly adhering to the tenants of BW/BM, it's very much implied that most living Decepticons either became Maximals or were executed during the upgrades. Ravage was one of the few granted amnesty, for some reason. (Probably worked out a deal.) Guys like Obsidian and Stryka would likely have been Autobots to begin with, or changed sides.

THREAD UPDATE from some Botcon attendees: Every year we have to wait until people show up to Botcon and start getting their toys to find out what the rest of the figures are. The suspense is killer, but thankfully we don't have to wait any longer!

The attendee exclusive figure is Machine Wars Starscream made from the 2010 Terradive mold!

While we won't know for certain until the Club Store opens tomorrow, we can confirm or speculate on some other figures based on the comic book:
Machine Wars Sandstorm made from the Dark of the Moon Skyhammer mold!
Machine Wars Thundercracker from the Botcon Skywarp mold!
Machine Wars Mirage from the Classics Mirage mold!
Hauler from the 2010 "Grappel" mold!
Generation 2 Electro made from the Botcon Hoist mold!
Seekers from the Classics Starscream mold!

It seems like theirs a dozen+ auctions on ebay already for the Botcon 2013 toys. http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_odkw=&_ ... &_from=R40

Well at least you seem somewhat excited despite your previous stated distaste for BotCon toys.

Tigermegatron wrote:The attendee exclusive figure is Machine Wars Starscream made from the 2010 Terradive mold!

Looks nice, but not exactly the world's best fit for MW Starscream. Not that FunPub seems especially preoccupied with nitpicky little things like 'appropriateness'. They both turn into jets, right? Great!

Machine Wars Sandstorm made from the Dark of the Moon Skyhammer mold!

At least we all saw this one coming. Should be neat to see though, that's a mold that needs to be repainted more.

Machine Wars Thundercracker from the Botcon Skywarp mold!

We already knew about this one too. The mold was a poor fit for MW Skywarp, and I imagine it'll work just as well for Thundy.

Machine Wars Mirage from the Classics Mirage mold!

Not Prowl? That would have been marginally more interesting, but whatever.

Hauler from the 2010 "Grappel" mold!

That's kind of neat. I'm honestly surprised Takara hadn't done that one before.

Generation 2 Electro made from the Botcon Hoist mold!

Yeah, we saw this one coming too. And it's a good choice, since Electro was badly in need of a new toy that wasn't a pile of gold plastic dust at this point.

Seekers from the Classics Starscream mold!

So are these the Rainmakers, or what? I still think it's kind of a goofy choice, given that Acid Storm already had a toy based on this mold, though I guess the opportunity to get him in a 'cartoon accurate' color scheme along with his buddies (do they have names?) is pretty nice. I might see what this goes for on the secondary market, Seeker hoards are fun, and Seekers in neon colors are even better.

I've been reading the update thread over on TFW and have a few notes:

There's no Grappel. The Rainmakers are the Classics seeker mold in three different colors. The sales actually start tonight at 6 pm, so expect more pics to start surfacing then (although why we don't have pics of the display case yet is beyond me. Usually they have a case showing the exclusives for the year).

If anybody wants to work out a sale/trade for that Mirage, let me know. I like the character and I like the mould, which is enough to off-set my dislike of Fun Publications' settings and stories. (See the trade forums for more information.)

Looks nice, but not exactly the world's best fit for MW Starscream. Not that FunPub seems especially preoccupied with nitpicky little things like 'appropriateness'. They both turn into jets, right? Great!

I actually kind of like the file card. It implies that Jhiaxus made a Starscream, and weeded the dangerous traits out of his personality.

We already knew about this one too. The mold was a poor fit for MW Skywarp, and I imagine it'll work just as well for Thundy.

So, this makes Thundercracker the most used BotCon/Fun Publications character, right? Besides '07, '11 and this year, there was also a Thundercracker PVC released at BC03 (during the 3H years). And, the '07 and '11 Thundercrackers also use the same mould. Ah well, every rule has an exception. And, given that we got a good Thundercracker at retail (and it is unlikely a "Machine Wars" themed recolour would happen at retail), this is okay.

The mould works as well for Thundercracker and Skywarp as the original "Machine Wars" moulds did.

Machine Wars Mirage from the Classics Mirage mold!

Same mould. Same character.

And.....it is one that I want. (Seriously, if anybody gets one they want to be rid of, let me know.)

I am suprised that they did not use Prowl for the custom class figure this year. (Of course, we can probably assume that Prowl will be a club exclusive of some kind next year.)

Seekers from the Classics Starscream mold!

This will not be the first year that I skipped a good troop-builder set, the other two being 2009 (Sweeps) and 2012 (Junkions).

-edit:
Rumour has it that Sunstorm is going to be in this box. This is somewhat irksome, as I really like Sunstorm (owing to Patyck and McDonough's short run with Dreamwave ~a decade ago). But, at this point (7 years after the mould was first pressed and several years after it started showing its age in terms of sculpt and engineering) it is unlikely that a Sunstorm figure would be released anywhere other than through Fun Publications or a similarly exclusive venue.

I cannot even really blame Hasbro for not making a Sunstorm (as much as I happen to like the character). Besides being obscure as a hell (featuring prominently in the US once, in a story-arch that was arguably never resolved, a decade ago), Hasbro had other priorities with that mould. Acid Storm took the "obscure character" slot in '09 (and added something legitimately unique to the mix). And, by 2010, the mould was showing its age (when compared to current figures) when it was used to make Thundercracker. (As happy as I was to get a US retail Thundercracker, I thought the toy looked a bit dated when it came out, never mind now.)

If this was not likely to be the most expensive of the three, I would consider tracking one down. (And, I would not refuse an obvious and unexpectedly cheap Sunstorm.) But, this is ultimately one of those cases where I hope that they people who get one appreciate it.

There's no Grappel.

From what I have been hearing, this is probably the case. They might be pushing a future shared exclusive.

I really hope that this is the case, as I likely cannot get any of these now, but might be able to swing it later. If I miss out on the Mirage, I will be annoyed. But, I already have the 2006 pressing of that mould and the 2009 (Gentei) exclusive pressing. But, Hauler will sting. (If nothing else, I was going to make a Hauler figure. The only reason I did not was because I could not find an extra Grappel.)


-edit:
And, as always, I plan to read the comic when Lewis gets it. Given the end result of last year's convention comic and the name of this year's set ("Termination"), it is not hard to imagine how this year's book might end....



-Depleted Dom.....

Pics are up now if you go looking.

Here's one from 4chan:


From all accounts, this is "Rainmakers" in name only (if they are indeed actually called that). The guy on the right is clearly the purple Seeker from MTMTE (who I had previously named "Wasteland") and the guy in the middle is either an alternate interpretation of Acid Storm (making one or the other figure redundant) or perhaps someone else. Disappointingly, this would have been a good chance to get a light blue Seeker that looked like Thundercracker's cartoon colours. (And there was no shortage of blue generic Seekers.) Sunstorm (if that's what he's named) looks accurate to the original toy, but not to the cartoon appearance--assuming that it actually is the Rainmaker appearance they're using, and not this one.

(Upon some review, "Wasteland" does not match his cartoon appearance exactly, but that's probably sprue distribution.)