Botcon 2013: Machine Wars

Post by **Blackjack** » Tue Jun 11, 2013 3:56 pm

The toys for Botcon 2013 had been released some time ago under the theme of Machine Wars. Of course in typical Botcon fashion only half of the cast are actually Machine Wars characters. The set's actually been revealed a long time ago, but 'production sample' pictures have been revealed, and we don't have news of them, so since I'm bored...

The packaging for the set was released a while back:
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First up we have Hoist, a retool of Generations Kup with a new head.
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A retool-with-a-new-head of ROTF Dirge as Skywarp:
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The straight-up repaint of Prime Dreadwing as Megaplex:
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Then, from Beast Machines (instead of Machine Wars) is a redeco of Generations Warpath as Strika with a new head. Who looks bloody gorgeous.
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Strika without Obsidian will be remiss, so we have a retool of 2010 Transformers Subtitleless Highbrow with a new head as Obsidian.
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Who originally was revealed to look like this in homage of the original toy:
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Post by **Blackjack** » Tue Jun 11, 2013 3:58 pm

Josh Burcham art!

Post by **Blackjack** » Tue Jun 11, 2013 4:10 pm

These are toys from the 'incentive figure' program or whatnot, which meant you can get/buy these guys if you registered before a deadline. Very much too late if you want these guys, but I thought I'd share them for sake of completeness since Botcon toys are difficult to get anyway.

As with above, all the images are mirrored off Seibertron.

Jackpot, a retool of Animated Jazz with a new head.

A retool of ROTF Lockdown with the Axer head as Circuit (who in the G1 toyline is a repaint of Axer).

G1 Breakdown, a repaint of Universe Sideswipe with Botcon's 'G2' Breakdown head in a G1 deco.

A retool of Prime First Edition Starscream with a new head as Slipstream.

A redeco of the Generations G2 Laser Optimus Prime in colours homagingRID Scourge.

And a redeco of BWN Big Convoy in a Ultra Magnus-inspired deco as Ultra Mammoth, apparently Ultra Magnus in a beast body.

There's also a repaint of Terradive as Beast Wars Depth Charge which is apparently free of charge to anyone who already registered to Botcon.

Auntie Slag · Post by **Auntie Slag** » Tue Jun 11, 2013 5:54 pm

Ultra Mammoth looks like a good fun toy with lots of poseability, and I particularly like Hoists colour scheme as he seems to be a big robot Mars bar.

Post by **Blackjack** » Tue Jun 11, 2013 6:41 pm

'Final product images' of Hoist apparently will look like this. Not sure if they changed the head or it's just the angle, but whatever.

Robot Mode
Alternate Mode

Notabot · Post by **Notabot** » Tue Jun 11, 2013 7:43 pm

That head on Skywarp looks totally slapped on, doesn't it? Doesn't go with any other part of the body.

Some neat looking stuff, but nothing worth the asking price IMO.

Post by **Blackjack** » Tue Jun 11, 2013 8:32 pm

Granted, it's a close-enough homage to Skywarp's original Machine Wars toy, which is just as bad... the Botcon toy tries to make it not clash so much by having red highlights on his robot body to match the head. Still terrible, but not as terrible as the original.

Agree with you, though... all of these guys are neat, but not worth the asking price. If I see, like, Strika or Obsidian or Jackpot or Slipstream or Breakdown at retail I'd grab them, but at the price they're asking...

Notabot · Post by **Notabot** » Tue Jun 11, 2013 8:39 pm

Wow. Didn't realize the original was like that. Nice homage, but an homage to awfulness is still awful.

Post by **zigzagger** » Wed Jun 12, 2013 12:09 am

Blackjack wrote:These are toys from the 'incentive figure' program or whatnot, which meant you can get/buy these guys if you registered before a deadline. Very much too late if you want these guys, but I thought I'd share them for sake of completeness since Botcon toys are difficult to get anyway.

I thought those were available through TFCC (i.e for club members), not at Botcon.

Are you thinking of the 'souvenirs'? I don't think those have been revealed yet (though MW Thundercracker is practically assured).

Post by **Blackjack** » Wed Jun 12, 2013 6:07 am

Ah, yeah, through the TFCC subscription. My bad. The seven toys are indeed ordered through TFCC stores.

No, I knew the souvenirs and on-the-spot toys are going to be in the same Machine Wars theme. Like you said, Thundercracker is assured because some artwork of him had been leaked.

Skyquake87 · Post by **Skyquake87** » Wed Jun 12, 2013 10:43 pm

Machine Wars? Really? Why not...Beast Machines?

Is Machine Wars really a fondly remembered 'fan favourite' line? As far as I recall, it was a cheaply cobbled together store exclusive line - as the frankly p*sspoor decos that those poor toys above have been saddled with will atest. Although it did feature a number of inappropriate moulds passing themselves off as Classic characters. So right at home for the BotCon treatment and hooray for that.

Eh, another round of expensive 'never gonna own' baubles. Hoist looks sort of alright, but the rest like a lot of recent Botcon figures, just look weird. Not much of a fan of the 'jam a head on whatever's available and call it some classic character' approach. And more personally, I'm not a fan of mixing stylised bodies like those from Prime and Animated with stuff that's more traditional looking and trying to pass them off as part of the same universe. It looks stupid and wrong.

I am probably too old and not the target market for these.

Post by **Blackjack** » Mon Jun 17, 2013 5:11 am

One of the attendee-exclusive toys is Machine Wars Sandstorm, a redeco of DOTM Skyhammer. He looks like this, but presumably with better painted decals than what I assume to be mock-ups.

Sandstorm Robot Mode
Sandstorm Alternate Mode

It's a fair enough homage to the original MW Sandstorm, itself a redeco of Rotorstorm.

Post by **Warcry** » Mon Jun 17, 2013 5:31 pm

Skyquake87 wrote:Is Machine Wars really a fondly remembered 'fan favourite' line?

No. But FunPub seem to cater inordinately to the minutiae-loving crowd who maintain the Wiki and think that they'll increase their street cred by putting out stuff that'll cater to their tastes (which since they're running a fanclub for a nerd property isn't quite as nuts as it sounds at first). I don't think the average fan cares about Machine Wars one little bit.

It beats them doing Shattered Glass and Classics stuff every year though.

Post by **Blackjack** » Fri Jun 28, 2013 1:21 pm

Lots of new Botcon toys have been released this time:

Source from Seibertron.

Machine Wars Starscream, a repaint of Terradive, or specifically the altered-head version used for the TFCC exclusive Depth Charge.
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Continuing the series of 'repainted toys from this year's main five-set', we have the long-speculated G2 Electro, a repaint of Machine Wars Hoist from this set, itself a retool of Sergeant Kup with a new head.
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...And MW Thundercracker, a repaint of Skywarp. No surprise.
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A straight-up repaint of Classics Mirage as MW Mirage.
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The Customization Class toy will be Blastcharge, a repaint of Strika based on the Beast Machines toy. In this image he's unpainted, check out the post below for the painted Blastcharge.

Also, a set of Rainmakers. Well, not exactly Rainmakers, but more specifically Sunstorm and Sunstorm's two buddies in the five seconds they appeared in the cartoon, now christened Bitstream and Hotlink.
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And a set of Botcon exclusive Kreos, representing Skywarp, Megaplex, Strika, Obsidian and Hubcap from the main five set. Also includes alternate teleporting legs for Skywarp. Notably Obsidian uses the green colouring seen in the early toy samples.
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Post by **Blackjack** » Fri Jun 28, 2013 1:28 pm

Blastcharge, all painted.