Seibertron.com Energon Pub Forums

Thank you for posting the link that is why i love this site .The Wheelie would of been great ,i have always hated the figure that came out in 1986 ,the vehicle is great ,but i always knew they could of done more the the robot mode . . At least almost 20 years latter we got a good mold for the most annoying Autobot .The thing i saw that i wish came out was the helmets for the Action Masters ,i love Action Masters and would of love that concept.On the subject of Optimus Prime <3
and him as a Action Master (cute cute cute ) why did he not come with the rifle pictured on the back of the box ,i hate that "Big orange thing that he can hardly even hold " ,sorry went back to 1990 and did a rant from back then .

Seibertron wrote:That date is the Canadian air date, not the US air date which I believe was in late 2000 or early 2001. In Canada, Beast Machines ran in its entirety whereas in the US it aired over two seasons. I believe this website has the correct US airdates (though it incorrectly lists the last 13 episodes of Beast Machines as Canada dates for YTV which is inaccurate).

http://epguides.com/BeastWars/

Whoops. My bad.

Ah, epguides. Haven't been there is years.

November 18, 2000... now THAT seems more believable for a U.S. airdate (Wikipedia's list agrees too). Still that means that there was still time between then and Sept 8, 2001 for reruns of BM to air, during which the contest in question could have taken place.

Seibertron wrote:I also doubt any promotion was done with either of those two toys. Again, because the line had been canceled for a few months and the regular line products had gone on clearance long before that. They showed up on clearance at Kmart after never showing up at Toys R Us, Walmart, KB Toys, Meijer, Target, etc.

Oh, no, the BPOP and Rattrap toys weren't the grand prizes, they were just the secondary prizes for 1000 of those who entered but didn't win the grand prize. both Fox Kids and Kids WB! did this sort of thing all the time with the toys of their various programming.

Seibertron wrote:Weren't you around 10 or so when all of this would've been doing down?

10-11ish, yes. Good times... until disaster struck my viewings of Fox Kids right before RiD premiered.

Seibertron wrote:Those toys were released during a very, very pivotal point in my life and there are some other things in my personal life that occurred during that time frame that happened that helped cement all of this in my memories.

Me too, as I hinted above, a very sad moment (for a kid hooked on cartoons) occurred to me about two weeks right before RiD began.

Seibertron wrote:Plus I sold a dozen or so of those Blast Punch Optimus Primals and Rattraps on eBay because there were tons available at these Kmarts to the tune of 30 or more of each at each Kmart in the Grand Rapids, MI area, and because they were in such demand because of their lack of availability. I actually just sold the last Rattrap from that batch of clearance figures just a couple of weeks ago.

Cool. Still wish I had picked up these two figures as a kid.

Seibertron wrote:

Seibertron wrote:Those toys were released during a very, very pivotal point in my life and there are some other things in my personal life that occurred during that time frame that happened that helped cement all of this in my memories. Plus I sold a dozen or so of those Blast Punch Optimus Primals and Rattraps on eBay because there were tons available at these Kmarts to the tune of 30 or more of each at each Kmart in the Grand Rapids, MI area, and because they were in such demand because of their lack of availability. I actually just sold the last Rattrap from that batch of clearance figures just a couple of weeks ago.

This old conversation on alt.toys.transformers states that those two figures showed up at KB at discounted prices as well later in 2001 (which I didn't know, but still is further evidence of their late 2001 release date): http://groups.google.com/group/alt.toys ... 9969a824df

as does this: http://groups.google.com/group/alt.toys ... 9969a824df

Dave Van Domelen's review of it in June 2001, which he bought from BBTS after being unable to find it in stores: http://groups.google.com/group/rec.toys ... b8827839ef

(lots of talk about BPOP in alt.toys.transformers, but little about Rattrap. Was Rattrap released prior to that but I just couldn't find it in the Grand Rapids, MI area?)

This never came to fruition, but Air Attack Optimus Primal was released as a TRU / Amazon.com exclusive: http://groups.google.com/group/alt.toys ... 9969a824df

This one contradicts my statement saying that it showed up at a Walmart at some point in 2001, but considering the rarity of it at the time during summer of 2001 and the release of RID that summer, I'm assuming it was only some Walmarts and in very limited quantities. It showed up in insane bulk at Kmart in August 2001.

http://groups.google.com/group/alt.toys ... 358a0b25b3

And this one has a toy Fair press release from February 2001 that states Rattrap as currently available and Blast Punch as coming out in April 2001.

http://groups.google.com/group/alt.toys ... 5035c4ce26

I must've gotten Rattrap sooner than BPOP because I didn't do a gallery or review of Rattrap, but I clearly remember being very excited about BPOP when I got him. Maybe Rattrap was just rare initially?

All I remember is seeing BPOP and Rattrap in BM packaging at a Toys R Us (might have seen them elsewhere too, but I don't remember), these two offered as a secondary prize in a Fox Kids contest during Beast Machines' broadcast, and Air Attack OP in RiD packaging as a TRU exclusive. I wasn't around during the ATT days (man, how I wish I had been), but they got some great info in there.

Seibertron wrote:Ah well, now that I think about it, this whole derailment of the topic is just that ... a derailment. They really don't even fit what we were originally talking about now that I think about it.

Whoops! Let me try to steer this back by saying that all these Beast Machines figures don't necessarily count as "prototypes that were finalized and mass produced as real toys at much later date than" since tthey were finalized and their eventual releases were still pretty cclose to the run of the Beast Machines toyline, whereas Beast Wars Neo Unicron wasn't finalized beyond an unfinished prototype.

So, if there aren't any cases of a TF toy prototype being made, held off for a long time, and finally completed, finalized, and mass produced for retail at much much later later date, thne I guess we'll probably never get this Unicron.

Sabrblade wrote:

Seibertron wrote:That date is the Canadian air date, not the US air date which I believe was in late 2000 or early 2001. In Canada, Beast Machines ran in its entirety whereas in the US it aired over two seasons. I believe this website has the correct US airdates (though it incorrectly lists the last 13 episodes of Beast Machines as Canada dates for YTV which is inaccurate).

http://epguides.com/BeastWars/

Whoops. My bad.

Ah, epguides. Haven't been there is years.

November 18, 2000... now THAT seems more believable for a U.S. airdate (Wikipedia's list agrees too). Still that means that there was still time between then and Sept 8, 2001 for reruns of BM to air, during which the contest in question could have taken place.

Seibertron wrote:I also doubt any promotion was done with either of those two toys. Again, because the line had been canceled for a few months and the regular line products had gone on clearance long before that. They showed up on clearance at Kmart after never showing up at Toys R Us, Walmart, KB Toys, Meijer, Target, etc.

Oh, no, the BPOP and Rattrap toys weren't the grand prizes, they were just the secondary prizes for 1000 of those who entered but didn't win the grand prize. both Fox Kids and Kids WB! did this sort of thing all the time with the toys of their various programming.

Seibertron wrote:Weren't you around 10 or so when all of this would've been doing down?

10-11ish, yes. Good times... until disaster struck my viewings of Fox Kids right before RiD premiered.

Seibertron wrote:Those toys were released during a very, very pivotal point in my life and there are some other things in my personal life that occurred during that time frame that happened that helped cement all of this in my memories.

Me too, as I hinted above, a very sad moment (for a kid hooked on cartoons) occurred to me about two weeks right before RiD began.

Seibertron wrote:Plus I sold a dozen or so of those Blast Punch Optimus Primals and Rattraps on eBay because there were tons available at these Kmarts to the tune of 30 or more of each at each Kmart in the Grand Rapids, MI area, and because they were in such demand because of their lack of availability. I actually just sold the last Rattrap from that batch of clearance figures just a couple of weeks ago.

Cool. Still wish I had picked up these two figures as a kid.

Seibertron wrote:

Seibertron wrote:Those toys were released during a very, very pivotal point in my life and there are some other things in my personal life that occurred during that time frame that happened that helped cement all of this in my memories. Plus I sold a dozen or so of those Blast Punch Optimus Primals and Rattraps on eBay because there were tons available at these Kmarts to the tune of 30 or more of each at each Kmart in the Grand Rapids, MI area, and because they were in such demand because of their lack of availability. I actually just sold the last Rattrap from that batch of clearance figures just a couple of weeks ago.

This old conversation on alt.toys.transformers states that those two figures showed up at KB at discounted prices as well later in 2001 (which I didn't know, but still is further evidence of their late 2001 release date): http://groups.google.com/group/alt.toys ... 9969a824df

as does this: http://groups.google.com/group/alt.toys ... 9969a824df

Dave Van Domelen's review of it in June 2001, which he bought from BBTS after being unable to find it in stores: http://groups.google.com/group/rec.toys ... b8827839ef

(lots of talk about BPOP in alt.toys.transformers, but little about Rattrap. Was Rattrap released prior to that but I just couldn't find it in the Grand Rapids, MI area?)

This never came to fruition, but Air Attack Optimus Primal was released as a TRU / Amazon.com exclusive: http://groups.google.com/group/alt.toys ... 9969a824df

This one contradicts my statement saying that it showed up at a Walmart at some point in 2001, but considering the rarity of it at the time during summer of 2001 and the release of RID that summer, I'm assuming it was only some Walmarts and in very limited quantities. It showed up in insane bulk at Kmart in August 2001.

http://groups.google.com/group/alt.toys ... 358a0b25b3

And this one has a toy Fair press release from February 2001 that states Rattrap as currently available and Blast Punch as coming out in April 2001.

http://groups.google.com/group/alt.toys ... 5035c4ce26

I must've gotten Rattrap sooner than BPOP because I didn't do a gallery or review of Rattrap, but I clearly remember being very excited about BPOP when I got him. Maybe Rattrap was just rare initially?

All I remember is seeing BPOP and Rattrap in BM packaging at a Toys R Us (might have seen them elsewhere too, but I don't remember), these two offered as a secondary prize in a Fox Kids contest during Beast Machines' broadcast, and Air Attack OP in RiD packaging as a TRU exclusive. I wasn't around during the ATT days (man, how I wish I had been), but they got some great info in there.

Seibertron wrote:Ah well, now that I think about it, this whole derailment of the topic is just that ... a derailment. They really don't even fit what we were originally talking about now that I think about it.

Whoops! Let me try to steer this back by saying that all these Beast Machines figures don't necessarily count as "prototypes that were finalized and mass produced as real toys at much later date than" since tthey were finalized and their eventual releases were still pretty cclose to the run of the Beast Machines toyline, whereas Beast Wars Neo Unicron wasn't finalized beyond an unfinished prototype.

So, if there aren't any cases of a TF toy prototype being made, held off for a long time, and finally completed, finalized, and mass produced for retail at much much later later date, thne I guess we'll probably never get this Unicron.

Sadly yes you are correct... then again, it would also mean that there would have to be character refinement in the figure too.... certainly making ther back shell less solid and maybe more rounded and hollow..maybe make it almost like a set of wings...i digress thats my idea if they were going to release this figure... but alas it might never now see the light of day

Baneblade wrote:Sadly yes you are correct... then again, it would also mean that there would have to be character refinement in the figure too.... certainly making ther back shell less solid and maybe more rounded and hollow..maybe make it almost like a set of wings...i digress thats my idea if they were going to release this figure... but alas it might never now see the light of day

Though, as I sad in another thread, I'm not sure sure why so many really want this Unicron that badly, especially those who think it's superior to the Armada mold.

I dunno. There are two things keeping me from preferring it over the Armada Unicron toy mold.

One factor is its size. This BWN Unicron prototype was said to be as tall as Optimal Optimus, which would make it about half the size of Armada Unicron. It'd only be something like a tall Ultra or a short Leader by today's size class standards. Ignoring the Cybertron Unicron toy, that's a pretty short size for a planet-former, right?

Second is its excessive amount of planet shell kibble. Now, while the Primus figure may contain a similar amount of kibble as this Unicron proto, the Primus mold has its kibble arranged so that very little of it is appears to be "hanging" off of his body; instead having it stick out like more believable armor pieces. Whereas the kibble on this Unicron toy is very much just hanging onto his back and legs all sloppily like some giant backpack shell clustermuck. There's little organization to it aside from "Toss it all onto his back and let it hang off from there", leaving it look very uncreative, cluttered, and somewhat half-done. And from what I've heard, he doesn't even look like this in the Beast Wars Neo cartoon.

Sabrblade wrote:One factor is its size. This BWN Unicron prototype was said to be as tall as Optimal Optimus, which would make it about half the size of Armada Unicron. It'd only be something like a tall Ultra or a short Leader by today's size class standards. Ignoring the Cybertron Unicron toy, that's a pretty short size for a planet-former, right?

Seibertron wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:One factor is its size. This BWN Unicron prototype was said to be as tall as Optimal Optimus, which would make it about half the size of Armada Unicron. It'd only be something like a tall Ultra or a short Leader by today's size class standards. Ignoring the Cybertron Unicron toy, that's a pretty short size for a planet-former, right?

Are you referring to the Hot Rodimus figure in that pic? That's a Micromaster. The proto is still only about the size of a leader.

Sabrblade wrote:

Seibertron wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:One factor is its size. This BWN Unicron prototype was said to be as tall as Optimal Optimus, which would make it about half the size of Armada Unicron. It'd only be something like a tall Ultra or a short Leader by today's size class standards. Ignoring the Cybertron Unicron toy, that's a pretty short size for a planet-former, right?

Are you referring to the Hot Rodimus figure in that pic? That's a Micromaster. The proto is still only about the size of a leader.

Just posting a pic for reference for your discussion.

Seibertron wrote:Just posting a pic for reference for your discussion.

Oh, cool, thanks.

Though, now that I think about it, I guess it would have been cool for kids to have someone to stand up against Optimal Optimus on equal height (since TM2 Megatron was an Ultra instead of a Super), so this Unicron would have been good for that.

Sabrblade wrote:

Seibertron wrote:Just posting a pic for reference for your discussion.

Oh, cool, thanks.

Though, now that I think about it, I guess it would have been cool for kids to have someone to stand up against Optimal Optimus on equal height (since TM2 Megatron was an Ultra instead of a Super), so this Unicron would have been good for that.

Even though large Transformers are cool ,i sometimes think the are too big to have any fun with .A Unicron this size would of been cool ,

michael alex kawa wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:

Seibertron wrote:Just posting a pic for reference for your discussion.

Oh, cool, thanks.

Though, now that I think about it, I guess it would have been cool for kids to have someone to stand up against Optimal Optimus on equal height (since TM2 Megatron was an Ultra instead of a Super), so this Unicron would have been good for that.

Even though large Transformers are cool ,i sometimes think the are too big to have any fun with .A Unicron this size would of been cool ,

but if you don't have massive transformers you cant have super imposing characters... the effect would be.. well... lost