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[Mkall]

Anyone who knows me well knows that I will be quick to call FunPub out on errors, but just as quick to jump to their defence. In every previous Botcon Boxset I found far more positives than I did negatives.

Not so this year's. In my oppinion Fun Pub messed up in their Boxset design. Here's why I believe this to be the case

First, only 3/5 characters are actually from Machine Wars. This is the Box Set that is teased publicly to every fan out there. They have been saying "Machine Wars" for the last 4 months which means the box set SHOULD BE Machine Wars, not Machine Wars and others... this was supposed to bring people to the event and cause excitement, not cause confusion. Don't get me wrong, I like Strika and Obsidian, but they should've been attendee-only figures in their own pack of two.

Second, the aesthetics are all over the place. There have one movie mold, one TF: Prime mold and 3 Universe/Generations/Classics Molds. Sure the molds may "work" for the individual character, but they don't work for those who like a unified look... If I get the box (big If right now), then I'm going to leave some in the box because they don't work with the aesthetics I collect.

I think I'm just going to get the few figures I like off of eBay this year. Sorry but this is a low set for me. The lowest in a very long time.

[Seibertron]

This would have worked with a new G1 styled Megatron head. But without it, it doesn't look like a clone of Megatron at all. It looks like a recolored Dreadwing. Megaplex with a new head would have sold the set alone. I thought reveals 3 through 5 were supposed to be the ones that wowed us all?



And for good measure ...



And they wonder why there's such an explosion of 3rd party products over the past 1/2 decade. These poor decisions/choices to save a buck are really frustrating. Believe in your products, do them right so that no explanations are needed, toss in a modified weapon for Hoist so he's got a tow hook, a new head for Megatron Megaplex, and charge us 20 to 50 bucks more for the set.

[Burn]

Think I say it every year.

Ever since FunPub took over, the BotCon exclusives have been boring.

3H may have crashed and burned in the end but at least they came up with ORIGINAL characters that EXPANDED on current mythos instead of unoriginal revamped existing characters slotted into a storyline that is just uninteresting. (And incredibly unoriginal in the case of Shattered Glass)

But that's just my opinion ...

[rpetras]

Oh for 5.

I didn't think Machine Wars would interest me much, and I was right.

If I can get a Hoist CHEAP for a custom, I'm interested, but I won't spend big dollars on fodder figures.

Oh well, I get to save some cash for other stuff this year.

[kirbenvost]

I think it's a great choice of a mold, but they really should've put the extra time/effort/cost into a remolded head. But yeah, surprising indeed. And makes it even more unfortunate that Skyquake is so hard to get.

[Samsonator]

Well... F**k me, I did not see that coming. Granted I think Dreadwing would be more suited as say, Machine Wars Starscream, rather than Megaplex and probably also Megatron... But still, pretty cool.

[FracturedKoi]

I'm okay with the mold-choice and the color scheme, but I really really wish they'd have given him a different head D=

[Mindmaster]

Well, Megaplex was an obvious choice... but did not expect that mold. Huh.

It kinda works I suppose, but like everyone else is saying, he should have a Megatron-esque head, if he's supposed to be a "clone" of Megatron.

[craggy]

Skyquake was made into a Botcon exclusive out of some other guy, now they're making exclusives out of him. his circle of fame is complete.

[Mkall]

Think I say it every year.

Ever since FunPub took over, the BotCon exclusives have been boring.

3H may have crashed and burned in the end but at least they came up with ORIGINAL characters that EXPANDED on current mythos instead of unoriginal revamped existing characters slotted into a storyline that is just uninteresting. (And incredibly unoriginal in the case of Shattered Glass)

But that's just my opinion ...

I disagree to some extent.

I like modern takes on old characters, so seeing a Red Tracks, or a new Pyro, Dreadwind in '07; even Thunderclash was neat. I would've been all for it had they kept the box set to Machine Wars characters in a similar style and I would've been appeased.

But they didn't. They took multiple characters from multiple eras and multiple toys from multiple lines and tossed them all in a box.

Recently finishing a discussion on what an "original character" is, I'd rather not do it again, but yes I would love FunPub to come up with new characters. This set would have been perfect to create a new unique set of Machine Wars-esque characters, but it isn't looking like they want to do that. They ripped characters from another series and retconned them in with very little originality.

It's lazy plain and simple.

I'm sure the comic will be good as it always is (after all, they have a year to write it) but whatever exposition they come up with is probably not enough to satisfy me that this is anything close to a good set.