BotCon 2008 registration / details and images of convention toy exclusives as they're revealed

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Jaynz
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Post by Jaynz »

Actually, if we had gotten an "Classics" X-Brawn, Prowl, Sideburn vs Scourge and Sky-Byte set made of Energon/Cybertron/Classic re-decoes, I think people would have been happier.

At least the fanclub would offer something that's more for for the fans of the franchise that it's actually a club for, than, like 3H, be something that's celebrates ITSELF.
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Treadshot A1
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Post by Treadshot A1 »

TFVanguard wrote:Actually, if we had gotten an "Classics" X-Brawn, Prowl, Sideburn vs Scourge and Sky-Byte set made of Energon/Cybertron/Classic re-decoes, I think people would have been happier.
I don't recall any giant maniacal sharks in any series you mentioned. And Prowl would just be a repaint of energon Prowl, which wasn't that good. Unless we got a white Classics Rodimus with police lights.

However, i would prefer those over this year's. this year's is c***.
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Jaynz
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Post by Jaynz »

Treadshot A1 wrote:I don't recall any giant maniacal sharks in any series you mentioned.
Energon Sharkticon.
http://www.tfu.info/2004/Decepticon/Sha ... kticon.htm

Don't feel bad. He was only in one wave, wasn't a show character, and not exactly a sought after toy...
And Prowl would just be a repaint of energon Prowl, which wasn't that good. Unless we got a white Classics Rodimus with police lights.
Nah, there's a number of figures you could remold for a new RID Prowl. Adding police lights and a new head seems well without the 'FP' budget.
However, i would prefer those over this year's. this year's is c***.
Which is what I said... it's a lot like the failing of many of 3H's exclusives. They expect you to be a fan of the fanclub's offerings, not the franchise for which the fanclub is supposed to be for.
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Post by RID Scourge »

tbh I'd really only be interested in Scourge from that lot. Sharkticon was a definite pass for me (though if they did a remold of the head for Skybite that might be slightly interesting since Sky was a source of amusement to me), and the car brothers never did a whole lot for me.

It's a decent idea, but just about as original as this one.

[request for clarification]I'm also a little foggy on what you mean by being a fan of the franchise as opposed to being a fan of the club's offerings. Certainly someone wouldn't join a transformers club if they weren't a fan of the franchise.

I'm also not sure how a set of updated RID characters would really be more about catering to fans of the franchise. It certainly wouldn't support the originality argument since the figures would be just rehashes of RID characters, as opposed to rehashing a storyline that's trite. About the only way to beat that would be to create all new characters.[/request for clarification]
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Post by Treadshot A1 »

I still don't think Hasbro would bother to remold Sharkticon that much, to make it into Sky Byte. And i thought you meant a shark, not a shark shaped submarine.

And what would look like a RID prowl more than a white classics Rodimus with police lights?

@ Scourge: I think Vanguard means that the club's offerings are so poor that you have to be a fan of the club to like'em, and that a fan of the franchise would not be so interested.

How can you not want updated RID? You are RID Scourge, right?
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Post by Jaynz »

You're close, Treadshot. It's not that they're so poor (though I do think this year's qualifies), but that the fanclub is focusing on their own 'new' characters, 'new' fanfiction, etc... to the exclusion of fan-favorite characters from over the past 25 years.

Why couldn't they have done 'Classics Jazz', etc, knowing that the Animated series has locked up that character for a year. IE, offer the fans what they were fans of in the first place. It's why the BW and Classics sets so highly prized after all, they were incarnations of characters that people WANTED.

It's not really about being 'original', since that's not really a fan-club's actual JOB. It's about celebrating the franchise that we've all come into for one reason or another.
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Post by RID Scourge »

Jazz was probably a bad example. Aside from the refences to murder, the Botcon exclusive Jazz would pass for a classics Jazz perfectly.

The thing about fan favorites is that if you wait long enough Hasbro will create a homage figure based on a given figure.

What about Nighbeat? He's got a bit of a cult following, and he's their next exclusive.
Treadshot A1 wrote:How can you not want updated RID? You are RID Scourge, right?
I wouldn't mind the update of Scourge, but we've gotten a bunch of Nemesis Primes, who are pretty much the same deal (we're even getting one for a SDCC exclusive). Aside from Scourge, the only RID character that I'd really care about seeing updated is Ultra Magnus.
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Post by Jaynz »

RID Scourge wrote:Jazz was probably a bad example. Aside from the refences to murder, the Botcon exclusive Jazz would pass for a classics Jazz perfectly.
That's the point, sonny...
What about Nighbeat? He's got a bit of a cult following, and he's their next exclusive.
Well, it may be the first real positive example of #wiigii power out there. But, well, even then they kinda botched him, nae? Nightbeat without the antenna is like Soundwave with lips.
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Post by RID Scourge »

He's not a perfect match, but Classics BB isn't exactly a VW Bug either.
TFVanguard wrote:That's the point, sonny...
My point is that citing Jazz as a "fan favorite" who's being ignored by the club is a bit of a straw argument when the Jazz that they're releasing is almost perfect as a classics character.

There are plenty of "fan favorites" that they've done: Ironhide, Ratchet, the crew of the Axalon and the Darkseid and the figures from last year.
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Post by Jaynz »

Uh, Jazz's very juvenile and 'kewl' markings are exactly WHY ...

...

Forget it, I'm obviously not getting through here. Can someone else take over?
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Post by RID Scourge »

Tbh the only thing I'm seeing here is that you're being a bit nitpicky. I get your point, but I don't particularly believe that adding markings to a figure (that otherwise is exactly what someone could ever want for a classics Jazz) correlates to the fan club "ignoring fan favorites."

You're also ignoring my other points about all the "fan favorites" that they have done every other year that they've done Botcon, which more than counters your point.

Imo the markings on the figure don't really take away from the overall look of the figure. They're not the whole of the deco, and they're small enough to ignore.

Certainly you're entitled to your opinion if you don't like the set, but dismissing my argument because Jazz has markings and Nighbeat doesn't have antennae makes a weak argument.
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Post by Treadshot A1 »

If you ask me, the fan-club is, in effect, basically making another parallel universe in Transformers, and expecting people to like whatever they make of it, instead of sticking to the characters people like...uh, make that sticking to the timeframe/place people like.

I accept that Jazz can still pass for a classic Jazz, but it would have been so much easier to ditch the Massacre Racing decals in the first place.

However, since this mirrorverse is only for this year, i suppose this argument is valid for 12 MONTHS ONLY. Unless 2009 is just as bad. Then the validity is extended for 12 MORE MONTHS.
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Post by Jaynz »

That's exactly it, though obviously FP has done a much better job of that than 3H, that element of it still grates on me. The 'combiner exclusives' is a wonderful example of this... would have been really that difficult to have them decoed all brown, red, and tan and declared them 'Technobots' (which aren't likely to see mass release again) rather than five non-characters that no one actually gives a shit about?

The 'Deathsaurus' set gets flamed largely due to the number of non-characters that popped up in it. And, in that year, the character that was 'super kick-ass and better than the rest' was Ben Yee's personal fan-insertion character, better than Ratchet, Ironhide, the femmes, and even Deathsaurus himself!

Granted, the sets overall have been good until this year. But I'm worried that the amount of 'ivory tower' influence on FP has grown recently, and the attitude of FP is becoming more and more like Glen Hallit's attitude. That doesn't bode well for the future.

I'm not going to be part of a fan-club to celebrate their fan-fiction and fan-characters. I want to celebrate the whole kit-and-kaboodle.
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Post by inflatable dalek »

The logic behind the set makes a degree of sense. Evil repaints of Optimus Prime have been a staple of the franchise for years now and have been popular with a fair few fans, the idea that evil versions of more characters would appeal does seem sensible. It's just they've not really done a very good job of it. Certainly the ones I like best, Jazz and Goldbug are the ones that could most easily pass for regular versions of the characters...
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Post by Denyer »

TFVanguard wrote:You're close, Treadshot. It's not that they're so poor (though I do think this year's qualifies), but that the fanclub is focusing on their own 'new' characters, 'new' fanfiction, etc... to the exclusion of fan-favorite characters from over the past 25 years.

Why couldn't they have done 'Classics Jazz', etc, knowing that the Animated series has locked up that character for a year. IE, offer the fans what they were fans of
Does the club actually have that much latitude, and wouldn't people cry blue murder if they routinely got Seeker-like exclusives and removed those possibilities from the wider market?

They're semi-required to be obsolete and obscure.
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Post by Jaynz »

Well, Classics Jazz, specifically, isn't happening THIS year... (though next is a possibility, I suppose). But there are a large number of fan-centric characters out there that Hasbro hasn't shown too much interest in. Nightbeat is a good example (and is being done)... but guys like Kup, Crosshairs, etc, aren't likely to be revisited as their old selves, and would make good candidates, particularly in a themed box.

Classics Slugslinger, Misfire, and Triggerhappy vs Crosshairs, Pointblank, and Sureshot, would be a good set, for instance, since Hasbro isn't likely to put them out as part of Classics in wide retail, but would have fans going 'oh, I remember these guys!'.

There's PLENTY of known but second-or-third tier characters to choose from.
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Post by numbat »

TFVanguard wrote:There's PLENTY of known but second-or-third tier characters to choose from.
Like Powerglide and Onslaught!

Erm...

New sale thread added with a range of Transformers including Masterpiece, Botcon, CHUG, RID, Movies etc.

Looking for MP-11T Thundercracker and MP-9 Rodimus v2 (Takara version with as few QC issues as possible).


Check out my new sale thread now!

Also items on eBay.
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Post by Denyer »

TFVanguard wrote:There's PLENTY of known but second-or-third tier characters to choose from.
It's not just the toys but a broader question of promotion -- including things such as comics, for which FunPub/MC aren't primary licensees. If they start regularly treading on the toes of companies such as IDW and Titan (as is already somewhat the case with the Timelines material) they'll see more opposition.
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Post by Cliffjumper »

People like Crosshairs? I mean, dear God, why?
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Post by Treadshot A1 »

Cliffjumper wrote:People like Crosshairs? I mean, dear God, why?
No idea. But there is a market for Crosshairs figures, since Hasbro had the great idea of releasing a slightly different version of Strongarm as him.
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