Botcon 2016 Coverage: A Non-Review Of The Souvenir Exclusive Toys

Now, it is kind of difficult to review Fun Publications output due to, well, price, but also creative merit, unappeasable fans, and the company's business practices. When you have a deluxe, or some such, going for three times retail value, people tend to become very forgiving if they like it, and ill-tempered if they don't. If Funpub uses a popular character, some will feel that toy is being held to ransom, if they go obscure, why would anyone sensible buy it? The answer is that Funpub likes to sell things via boxsets and subscriptions, so like a variety pack of cereal, you'll always end up buying something you don't want. Then there was the credit card thing. Anyway, here's my commentary of the toys on offer.

The Attendee Freebie: Terrorsaur

This could so easily have been the best free gift ever. He's not had a Cybertonian mode before, or many toys in general. He is compatible with the boxset below and in the same shade of CG red. He has a spot-on head sculpt. He has very nice nose art in jet mode. And more importantly, he's based on Air Raid, the best of the deluxe aerialbots. Unfortunately, he does not come with the combiner accessory.

I mean, really.

The Predacus Set
If you've collected more than one combiner team, you've probably got a fairly good idea of what to expect here. The use of Combiner Wars moulds is both a strength and weakness. On the one hand, these toys are generally good. On the other, we've all been buying these for at least a year. For context, these five represent pre-Beast-Wars versions of the Tripredacus Council and two of their agents. The three generals existed as toys that combined into Tripredacus, although this didn't happen on screen, and in fact the computer generated cartoon used completely different character modes due to time constraints. These toys follow the cartoon in appearance, meaning there's a lot of red I'm not fond of, but obviously combine. Some observations also apply to the set in general, in that the part tolerances can feel different from mass market toys, but not necessarily worse, and there's a lot two tone colour schemes going on.

Here they are, ranked worse to best.

General Ramhorn: A de-facto preview of the Hasbro version of Nosecone(1), Ramhorn isn't very good. He's based off Brawl, a sub-par deluxe at the best of times, and the bulk of the retooling applied is limited to his weapon, an admittedly impressive drill. Nosecone will not be a First Aid level reworking. This means his altmode is a tank in reverse, the waist issue remains, and articulation is middling. More pressingly, the new head has some extremely delicate looking bat ears, and minimal clearance for them when transforming him. If anybody is gonna break, its this dude. Still, its a nice head, and he makes a bulky arm.

Ravage: I want to be pleasant to this toy, I do. I think the Breakdown mould used here is under-rated, because while its dorky to look at in robot mode, and a bit fiddly to convert, its very functional. Nice car mode, effective leg mode, superior arm mode, and good accessories. With Ravage, and by extension the Tigatron of the same convention, the new head they've added exacerbates that visual weakness. Ravage is proportioned like a Werther's Original atop a smart phone, there being limited space for his head in the altmodes, and there being conflicting design styles at work. The back of his head is completely, humorously, flat. I don't know what they could have done to fix this without completely abandoning cartoon fidelity, but I would have asked the sculptor to have taken another swing at it. Ravage is also subject to a oversight by Funpub, his combiner piece is not included in the box by default, so check for that. That said, he's not a bad toy once you get over the head, with both a Predacon and a Decepticon badge.

 Breakdown pictured for comparison

General Cicadacon: The least changed toy in the set, this dude benefits from a happy coincidence and some nice detailing. Based on CW Skydive, the unmodified head was fairly close to the CG in the first place, and a jet is reasonable stand-in for a flying insect. A particular highlight are the wings, which are done up in a lovely bug wings pattern. He's still very red in the same way Ramhorn is, but if you don't mind that, he's quite satisfactory toy. I'd also like to mention that his joints seem better than than my example of Skydive, although this may just be a coincidence.


General Sea Clamp: This guy carries the team in some ways. As a retool of Silverbolt via Scattorshot, he's a fundamentally a good toy and combiner torso. He also has the bulk of the retooling, with two rather nice new heads, one with an adjustable horn. The colours are also more varied due to the combined mode, which is nice. Purist may question how a guy whom flies became a craw-fish, but here we are.

Tarantulas: Rook is the best deluxe in Combiner Wars, don't let anyone tell you different. So an evil spidery version of him with an elaborate paint job? Well, yes, its kinda awesome. On the flipside, maybe Tarantulas would have worked better as that deluxe Groove mould? And the 5mm ports seem a bit loose.

Predacus: The only part of the set to favour the original toy design, through necessity, Predacus is striking when combined. While limb placement is a factor, given three members have the same red, and the other two are dark tones, Predacus has a distinctive look. Its also unique that the hands/feet come in both black and red, allowing you to contrast the colours as you see fit. Otherwise, its just as functional as any CW gestalt, although he doesn't have a dedicated partner legends toy, forcing him to use Superion's “1989 Joker” gun. 

 

Transmetal 3 Megatron
The revival of an abandoned concept by 3H Productions(2), this toy was the undoubted must-have of the convention. Its an undeniably attractive reworking of the 2002 RID Megatron, a toy I'd been tempted by, but never owned before. I'd say the mould has aged well, although the tail tends to come off, and minor tabbing issues. As a toy, he feels great. As high-end display piece, he's gorgeous. Two problems occur. 1) Due to the remoulding, the gargoyle mode is gone, leaving him with 5 official forms. 2) The eyes of the dragon heads are unpainted. Regardless, its an immediate and comprehensive success.


EDIT: It has since been pointed out to me that there's stress marks on the translucent plastic already. This dampens my enthusiasm a tad, and Megatron will now stay in a glass case.

Reflector Three Pack
I must confess I purchased this one while in a state of giddy hysteria. It was three of the CW Shockwave mould, a toy I'd been eyeing up for my Combaticons for months. And they had somehow figured out a camera mode for them. On closer inspection, this was not mentioned in the instructions, it being more a fan mode based around the arm tabs. On further inspection, this didn't actually matter. Presentation is immaculate, and as scout/legends scale toys go, the mould does everything I want. The fan camera mode even holds together well, once you get it there. Expect further gushing in a forthcoming Shockwave review. One slight problem, these are named “Flash Sentry”.

Custom Class Toy: Combiner Wars Ratchet & Others

Funpub was apparently instructed to use this mould by Hasbro, but its something of a coup for them, nonetheless. This was essentially a white version of CW First Aid, but with the option to use the previously unreleased Ratchet head and translucent blue accessories. Obtaining this on the secondary market will no doubt be a deeply frustrating matter for many. As for me, I have a new found respect for factory workers. You'll excuse me if I don't photograph mine, I'm not got around to finishing the stickers, and want to touch up the paint.


Toys I Did Not Buy
Another reason I'm not calling this a review is that I didn't get all the souvenir figures, but some comment is still needed. Consider this a rough guide to why I didn't.

The Rubber Ducky: I never thought I'd have to write about this. I'm a fan of whimsy, and having a bathtime buddy for Megatron above makes too much sense. On the other hand, its a not a Beast Wars accurate ducky. Its a generic ducky with a botcon logo. I put it down as a maybe, and then forgot about it. This one kind of slipped through the quacks.

Sorry.


Tigatron: Um, see Ravage?

Airazor: This one just didn't grab me, although no doubt I will curse this choice if I ever properly watch Beast Wars. Furthermore, I'm just not that fond of the base mould. I have Windblade, and she doesn't balance well.

Unit-3: Remember that issue with obscurity I was talking about in the introduction? Well, this dude is an example. He's based off an old, unnamed, Happy Meal toy known only as "Under-3"(3), via Combiner Wars Streetwise. As nice as that mould is in yellow, if you've indulged in Combiner Wars prior, you've probably brought this toy twice before. It doesn't exactly help that his new personality is a bit of generic badass.

The Magnaboss Sticker Sheet: Depending on how you look at it, this is either a cute idea, or a poor excuse with a somewhat cheeky inclusion. Magnaboss was the Maximal equivalent to (Tri)Predacus and this sheet would allow you to do up the mass market Prowl, Silverbolt, and Ironhide as their Beast Wars iterations. This adds some appeal to some otherwise meh toys, as well as giving someone for Tigertron and Unit-3 to combine with. What was a nasty surprise however, and I didn't find this out until I got home, this is where the eyes for Megatron's dragon heads are. Was this a last minute attempt to fix TM3 Megatron, or a ploy to sell the sticker sheet? We may never know.

Conclusion

Uhhh, draw your own? Or get Megatron and Reflector?

Foot notes

1. Long story.
2. Longer story.
3. Not a long story, the dude hardly exists.