 For those of you who wanted pics of all the Botcon Exclusives in one handy place...well, here you are! All Botcon exclusives are recolors of existing toy molds in production at the time. These toys are NOT mass-produced; rather, they are 'convention exclusives', meaning you have to attend the convention to get them. To find out more about BotCon, visit my BotCon Page. You'll find reviews, pictures, as well as a link to the main convention page.
Anyways, here are the toys, in order of year. |
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The first BotCon, and the first BotCon Exclusive: Breakdown. A recoloring of the 1986 Breakdown from the Menasaur Gestault. 1994 was the year they were re-releasing a LOT of the G1 toys as G2, and Breakdown was no exception:
It is interesting to note that while they released Breakdown, none of the other Stunticons were re-released. (More accurately, mass-released. They made it pretty far in the process.) One can only wonder why.
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The Second Coming of Botcon, this one featured a re-release of a Gen2 Gobot, and the first recognized appearance of a female-character toy(there is some speculation about Camshaft receiving that honor in europe, but no solid evidence :-). Nightracer was a recolor of the Bumblebee-Gobot mold:
It should be noted that there are some Nightracer toys out there without the hand-painted blue racing stripes and the computer-printout Decepticon symbols. The decorated ones are the "official," Raksha-approved BotCon toys--the others are leftover stock that Hasbro distributed elsewhere. Click here to find out where the secret 'unofficial' stock can be found! |
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1996 brought us a recolor of the first Beast Wars toy. The Bat from the Megatron/Primal 2-pk was recolored and re-released as the evil Onyx Primal.
(See Also: Japanese recolor Convoy Bat.) |
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Botcon 97 brought us recolors from the first-wave of Beast Wars toys. Packrat was a recolor of Rattrap, while Fractyl was a recolor of Terrasaur:
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Botcon 98 Brought us two recolored toys; Inferno was recolored into Antagony, ANOTHER female toy (by now, these are becoming common) while Powerpinch was recolored into Vicegrip. The animals are an ant and an earwig bug, respectively.
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Sandstorm was a recolor of Scorponok from the second-wave of Beast Wars toys, while Windrazor was a recolor of Silverbolt from the Fuzors line:
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BotCon 2000: Shokaract and Apelinq Shokaract was a recolor of the Beast Wars Transmetal Rampage mold, while Apelinq is a recolor of the Beast Wars Transmetal Optimus Primal mold:
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Finally, an Arcee toy! A pink version of the TM2 Blackarachnia mold, but who cares? :-) Changes also include a switch on the rotating faction symbol (autobot replaces predacon). Also, to quote Hellbunny: "Since this is the preregistrant version, it comes with a voice chip. The voice chip says, "Don't underestimate me. I'm more than just a pretty face. Arcee, MAXIMIZE!" It's done by the real Arcee voice actress, Susan Blue. However... it's a really, really stupid gimmick. It's not on the toy anywhere. The chip is an inch and a half white disk that is light sensitive and hides in the box. It's this big circular thing that looks something like those little plastic things that store halloween facial scar make-up. And it's light activated. What does that mean? It means unless you hide it somewhere, the damn thing goes off essentially non-stop." The X-9 Ravage mold from Japan has been recolored as Tigatron. The X-9 mold itself is a modified Transmetal 2 Cheetor mold. Still a nice toy.
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Primus, did we get a pile of toys this year. Glyph and Tapout are recolors of Bumblebee and Cliffjumper, respectively (more specifically, recolors of the Fun-4-All keychain versions...for more information on minibot mold variants, click here). We also got a recolor of Ultra Jetstorm called Cyclonus, and a recolor of (Night Slash) Cheetor called Catscan.
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Now called OTFCC instead of Botcon for the 2003 convention. If you don't already know the reasons why, then it probably doesn't matter to you. :-) As for toys...RID recolors this year, specifically the molds of two out of 3 car-brothers. Prowl was retooled and recolored, offered both in red (Sideswipe) and in yellow (Sunstreaker, the hotel exclusive). In addition, Sideburn was remolded (female heads, no joke) and turned into a Viper 2-pk of females called Roulette and Shadowstriker. It is interesting to note that the Sideswipe/Sunstreaker mold modification has carried beyond OTFCC, and into the mass retail Universe line. They used the OTFCC molding, and reattached the headlights for Universe Prowl and Inferno. Neat. This is the first time I can recall this happening. Yeah, there were also some PVCs; Sunstorm, and a troop builder 6-pk, but as those aren't toys, I won't mention them. ;-) Oh wait, yes I will...
A super-rare exclusive available only to Autocon members attending OTFCC this year: A four-pack of Shuttle Chodes (a set of 4 clear decoys in a movie shuttlecraft; commemorating the 17th anniversary of the Death of Brawn) and a Sunstorm Cybertonain Tetrajet PVC. (Pic) For more information about Autocon Convention Exclusives, click here. |
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For OTFCC, the toys were: Armada Galvarton, recolored, electronics gutted, now called Megazarek; and Armada Overload recolored (and remolded; both heads) now called Sentinel Maximus. Sentinel was not available at the convention; in-fact, Hasbro pulled the convention lisence from Glen, filed a lawsuit against 3H, and finally got the toys back from him, then repackaged them and mailed them to all of us directly. More... A third toy, the Last Autobot (recolor/remold of Rid Prime) was cancelled completely. The one upshot was a set of Hasbro exclusive spears made available to attendees if they filled out a survey (the survey lead to a conference call to selected attendees, who got a free Prime for participating).
For Botcon, we got an Action Master G2 Breakdown, a nice tie-in to the first convention (only 204 made, etc). (Pic)
The super-rare Autocon exclusives this year were a micromaster Wheelie, and a PVC Last Autochode (made to make fun of the failed Last Autobot toy we didn't get at OTFCC). For more information about Autocon Convention Exclusives, click here. |
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Master Collector has taken the Hasbro lisence from Glen, and purchased the BotCon name from the Hartmans. Sigh. For the Master Collector 2005 TF convention (I'm not ready to call it Botcon yet), we got way-too-many figures. I mean seriously, WAY TOO MANY FIGURES. There was a boxed set and two loose sets, as well as an attendee-only toy, consisting of Deathsaurus (a remold and recolor of the RID Megatron/Galvatron toy), Fallback (supposed to be Outback, a recolor of the Energon Strongarm jeep), Ironhide and Ratchet (a recolor and remold of the Energon Towline van), Chromia , Flareup, and Flamewar (a recolor and remold of Energon Arcee), Dirge and Buzzclaw and Virulent Clone (recolors of the Beast Wars Buzzclaw mold), and Richochet (a recolor of the Universe Windsheer jet, which was a recolor and slight remold of the G2 Cyberjets Jetfire and Hooligan). So to review: Deathy has a new head, Chromia/Flareup/Flamewar have a different head, and Ironhide/Ratchet have a different head (they also used the later Towline mold on that one). Everyone else is a recolor. Ratchet/FlareUp were a seperate purchase, and the Virulent Clone 2pk was a seperate purchase. Flamewar was a seperate toy given to pre-registrants. Everyone else was in a boxed set.
A super-rare Autocon-exclusive item, available only to members of Autocon who attended one of the three smaller conventions: A redeco version of one of the three Energon Sabre team members, called the Stormsword. For more information about Autocon Convention Exclusives, click here |
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Eh, I don't really remember. Probably sucked. The Autocon 2006 net exclusive was Pinchbottom. Ok, fine. The boxed set were retooled Cybertron toys, recolored (and retooled heads) as the pre-Beast Wars versions of the Maximal crew (Primal from Crumplezone, Rattrap from Ransack or Hightail, Rhinox from Landmine, Dinobot from Hoist, Cheetor from Clocker). These things currently go for way too much money on ebay.
This year was to see the eventual establishment of a pattern of multiple toys in a boxset, as well as an increasing number of seperate 'souvenior' packs. 2006 saw *** (recolors of ** and **) as the seperate souvenir pack purchases.
Subsequent years would see this dismal pattern continue to it's logical expensive corporate conclusion. I initially stopped documenting these, but have been drawn back in despite my best efforts. |
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Well, this was memorable. ;-) Classics recolors, filling out the ones we didn't get in that line. Jetfire was recolored into Dreadwing, Starscream into Thundercracker, Ramjet into Thrust/Dirge (with a wing remold, no less) and Bumblebee into Bugbite (eh, whatever). The purchase sets included Springer and Huffer (recolors of Cybertron Armorhide and Hotshot) and Alpha Trion (recolor/head remold of cybertron Vector Prime). I like them. In a move that would come to repeat itself, we eventually saw the so-called 'exclusive' Thundercracker released as a Takara Henkei jet (so your $200 ebay Botcon TC Jet was now down to 50 bucks), and finally, in 2011, released Mass-retail in the TF Generations line (now reducing your TC jet cost to ten dollars). Hopefully you didn't actually pay 200 bucks for just the Botcon Thundercracker...or the Dirge or Thrust, as the pattern repeated (Takara Henkei releases, and eventually Hasbro mass-retail for both). Ah, well.
The Autocon 2007 net exclusive was Nachos BelGrande. |
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The introduction of the Shattered Glass Universe. Ostensibly promoted thru subsequent years, the box set this year consisted of 'evil' Autobots (Classics Prime in purple, Cybertron ** as Jazz, *** ) and souvenior sets (Armada Wheeljack as Sideswipe, but in G2 Drench colors; Armada/Universe Blurr, with remolded head; Energon Megatron as Heroic Good Megatron; Classics Hotrod as evil mustache Hotrod) and some minicons that no-one cares about).
The Autocon 2008 Exclusive was PlotHole. |
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Worst set ever. Worst in-terms of, 'I don't display any of them'. I own them, unfortunately; this was the year I decided to try Botcon again (2005 being my inagural year, figured I'd see if anything changed). So far, nothing has. :-) The toys were Energon Rodimus (as Thunderclash), Cybertron Scattorshot (as Flak), Cybertron Landmine (as Landshark), Cybertron ** (as Scourge), and Cybertron FirstAid/Cannonball (as Kup). The souvenir sets this year were Cybertron Liobreaker/Universe LeoPrime (as Razorclaw) and Cybertron Thunder-thighs (as Elita-1); Energon Mirage (as Banzaitron) and Energon Starscream (as Skyquake); and Cybertron ** (as Sweeps 2, 6, and 7).
The Autocon 2009 Exclusive was ****. |
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- Yeah, not as of this writing. :-) |
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- Yeah, not as of this writing. :-) |
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- Yeah, not as of this writing. :-) |
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Thanks for taking the time to read this far. :-) After looking at the page, some of you may be asking, "Why are the toys all recolors of currently (at the time) produced toys? Why not something else? Why not a Mirage?" We are told that the cost involved to produce an out-of-production toy, or an entirely new toy, are too-much. The thought is that either the old mold will have to be extensively retooled, or a new mold created for an old toy. I tend to disagree with the philosopy. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying it wouldn't be expensive...I'm sure it would...just charge more, and give the folks what they want. After all, we're already paying upwards of 50 bucks or more for a recolored $12 toy. But that's just me. :-) Perhaps now that the originals are being reissued in Japan, that particular set of arguments will disappear and we'll see one of them turn up as an exclusive in the future.
Note: As of BC'02, we already are. Granted, it's the FFA version of BB and CJ, but we're moving in the right direction. I'll bet we get what we want VERY soon...and I was right. :-) We have remolded heads on the Sideburn mold for 2003. See? It's all coming together...) Heck, if the KO companies can reissue Mirage, Sunstreaker, and Wheeljack... it's just a matter of time. |