Today we kick off our Artist Alley announcements, with the first being that BotCon 2013 will in fact feature its largest Artist Alley ever! With so many amazing artists scheduled to attend BotCon 2013, this is one show you will not want to miss! And with that, we are thrilled to announce two of the artists attending BotCon In San Diego this June: Livio Ramondelli and Casey Coller!

LIVIO RAMONDELLI is the artist of various Transformers projects for IDW Publishing. His credits include Autocracy, Monstrosity, Chaos, Robots in Disguise and various covers for Spotlights and other series. He will also be doing upcoming Star Wars covers for Dark Horse Comics. He previously worked as a concept artist for DC Universe Online at WildStorm Productions.

CASEY COLLER is a professional illustrator best known for his work on various Transformers comic books from IDW Publishing. He's done covers and/or interior art for various titles, including: Transformers: Ironhide, All Hail Megatron, Robots in Disguise, Spotlights Drift, Blurr and Cliffjumper, More Than Meets The Eye, Transformers Ongoing, and Heart of Darkness. He has also done artwork for Hasbro, the Transformers Collector's Club Magazine and BotCon. Casey lives in Western Massachusetts with his wife Grace, daughter Rose, as well as a cat, two guinea pigs and four chickens.

BotCon wrote:Hello all,

We have now moved an allotment of attending BotCon sets to the non-attending Iacon category. If you have been waiting, you can now go and order your Iacon set use the registration link at BotCon!

I hate to say it but it looks like this year's membership figure won't ship until after BotCon as they are coming with the FSS figures. These have now shipped from the manufacturer and are at the packaging vendor.

Those of you in the FSS program should have received an email earlier today. We want everyone to know that the delay for both of these items has been with the manufacturer. Hopefully the process has been fixed on their side so that in future versions, they will make the agreed upon ship dates.

We apologize for for the lack of communication on our part. It has been very difficult for us to get information to pass on about both of these projects.

However, I do want to let you know that there will be carded version of Depth Charge you will be able to order once they arrive. We plan to have some available at BotCon. The bulk of the carded figures will be left in Fort Worth for the membership to order. In addition, since this is a club figure and NOT a BotCon figure, the Golden Ticket additional limits to not count for this item.

See you in San Diego!

Brian

Transformers Collectors' Club wrote:Hello all Figure Subscription Subscribers,

A couple of quick notes:

The figures have shipped from the factory to the packaging company! Yea! We have been waiting just like you since January for this to FINALLY happen.

According to the current schedule, it looks like the first figures will ship after BotCon. We know you are anxious to get this program kick started as are we, since we sent the complete files to the factory back in October....ugh. Hopefully the process has been fixed on their side so that in future versions, they will make the agreed upon ship dates.

If your Club Membership has not been renewed and has lapsed, you will need to email admin@funpubinc.com to make any address changes. We will notify you of when all addresses need to be current so that the first shipment goes to the correct location. This will happen a few weeks before we schedule the actual shipping date.

For those of you who paid by installment, once the figures are here, we will schedule when the next two installments will be billed. You will also need to contact Admin (phone 817-448-9863) to make any CC changes if your Club Membership has lapsed. Please do not send Credit Card information by email as that creates a security issue.

We apologize for the delay, but please note that the lag in shipping has been an ongoing factory issue. We met all of the deadlines that were given to us in order to meet the original January ship date. We also apologize for the lack of communication on our part. It has been very difficult for us to get information to pass on.

Thanks for your patience and continued support,

Brian

Hello BotCon fans!

We have run through our allotment of Iacon (non-attending sets) and are considering moving some of the Primus attending sets over to Iacon non-attending.

However, we don't want to do this until we are confident that everyone has registered that intends on coming to San Diego. So, we will re-visit the numbers in the next few days and make a decision as how to assist those who can't come but want the figure sets.

If you are coming, make sure to register VERY soon for BotCon 2013 today!

See you in San Diego!

Brian

The five-figure boxed set, which includes General Obsidian, General Strika, Commander Megaplex, Clone Warrior Skywarp, and Autobot Hoist, will be presented in an illustrated display box but, for the first time ever for BotCon, will also feature a cut out mimicking the style of the original MACHINE WARS packaging. This set can be displayed alongside all of your previous BotCon sets and/or your classic Machine Wars toys! Also included with the set is a certificate of authenticity, tech specs and figure weapons.

• Brian's Bytes and Bolts reveals that the Subscription figures have been delayed from China. They are estimating that the figures will ship right after BotCon. I'm assuming this means that the figures are being shipped over with all of the BotCon exclusives to save on transport costs. Because of this delay, they are unsure when the 2nd installment payment will be due for those of you who went with the payment option.
• First look at Transformers Generations Deluxe Hoist (available 4th quarter). Hoist is a remold of Trailcutter. He features a new head and trades Trailcutters trailer topper/shield for a tow hook that appears to transform into Hoist's gun. No wings but I think we'll all be happy to have Hoist join our "Classics" ranks. I'm assuming this figure will be packaged with his Spotlight book in the upcoming deluxe/comic packaged series revealed at Toy Fair back in February.
• The next two page spread features updated decos for the BotCon 2013 Machine Wars set. As far as I can tell, the only difference is Obsidian has undergone a major color change. Whereas he was a bright green with orange (transparent?) rotors, he now sports a color scheme that seems much closer to his Beast Machines cartoon counterpart along with (transparent?) red rotors. This should make many fans happy that Strika and Obsidian will be utilizing colors from the cartoon instead of one being from the cartoon and the other being from the toy.
• Transformers Generations Magnificus from eHobby is revealed as a club exclusive! Pre-orders will be available at http://www.TransformersClub.com/shop from April 15th to May 8th. Price is currently listed at $90.
• The comic continues the Beast Wars Shattered Glass theme. It introduces G2 Hero Megatron alongside some of Takara's Beast Wars II characters like the Seacons, Dirge, Thrust, and the Autorollers. Scylla is still female.
• After the comic, we get a one page "The Transformers Menagerie - Part 2: The Dinobots"
• Profile pages for Beast Wars Grimlock (Maximal) and Beast Wars II Dirge (Predacon)
• The back cover features another installment of David Willis' Recordicons as well as two installments of Transformers I.Q.

BotCon wrote:The creative team behind this years BotCon comic "MACHINE WARS: TERMINATION" is @RID_NightViper and @jcburcham. Look for excl preview soon!

BotCon wrote:We have turned on the BotCon 2013 online registration system! You may want to call your credit card company and make sure they don't stop your registration with a security hold and let them know to allow your charge to go through from Fun Publications.

If you are registering with another member, you will need THEIR log-in and password to receive member pricing.

If you complete your order with non-member pricing, we CANNOT adjust your pricing. Please understand what you are ordering and confirm the pricing before you check out. If you do not think you are getting the correct pricing, do not continue. If you continue, you are agreeing to the pricing you are being presented.

You have 10 minutes to complete your registration, please make sure you know what you want before you start. We suggest that you make a list for each person of the items you want to select for them BEFORE you begin registration. Then you can work from that list.

If you have not read the Information tab brochure, please do so before you register as you have 10 minutes to complete your registration before the system puts your items back into stock. You cannot hold them in your cart longer than that amount of time, however you can start over.

We do reserve the right to limit any member's quantities if we deem them excessive.

Please note that we have added a NEW item this year. Because of the concern of people not being able to participate in the class, we are offering to each registered attending member the opportunity to purchase an assembled unpainted Class Figure. This is limited to one per person, per package ordered. However, that person must pickup their items at registration. DO NOT create phantom attendees to get additional Class Figures as you will not be able to pick them up. This is NOT a souvenir and is NOT subject to the Golden Ticket souvenir rules. In addition, we will not pre-announce the figure or class kit mold, it will be a surprise at the show!

Hello all,

This is going out the current and former club members. We have decided to delay the BotCon registration start to the middle of next week as we have discovered a flaw in the store software that has been deleting recently renewed memberships.

This has only occurred to memberships that were declined two times (credit card not on file for the first two attempts or credit card declined). What it is has been doing is randomly deleting the approved memberships after the third attempt. We have the software company working on fixing this issue.

Meanwhile... we are auditing the entire data file to find the accounts who had good transactions but their membership is missing. It's going to take about 20 man hours to finish this task. In order to make sure everyone's log in works for BotCon registration, we have decided to delay registration until the middle of next week.

After we finish our audit, I'll send out another email to the entire group so that you can go test your account and make sure you see your membership. Your log in will then work correctly for BotCon registration.

I apologize for the delay but this will make everything much smoother and everyone much happier. We don't want you have have any issues with your registration or miss out because items sell out quickly.

Meanwhile, below is what I sent last week so make sure you have read all of the Information and FAQs before registration starts.

Thanks!

Brian

FROM LAST WEEK:


We have uploaded the BotCon brochure! Please go to BotCon.com and click on Information.

You will have approximately a week to read the information and ask questions before we open registration sometime next week. Before we open registration or send a question, please review the answers by clicking on the FAQ.

You need to CHECK your account at TransformersClub.com/shop to ensure that your account is current as you may need to renew in order to receive the membership discounts. If you are receiving this email, you have an active account with the club, but make sure you know your log-in and password (can be retrieved at TransformersClub.com/shop click on My Account).

If you are registering with another member, you will need THEIR log-in and password to receive member pricing.

If you complete your order with non-member pricing, we CANNOT adjust your pricing. Please understand what you are ordering and confirm the pricing before you check out. If you do not think you are getting the correct pricing, do not continue. If you continue, you are agreeing to the pricing you are being presented.

Per your request, we have added another 2 minutes to the timer.

We suggest that you make a list for each person of the items you want to select for them BEFORE you begin registration. Then you can work from that list.

Please take a look at the souvenir T-shirt and Hat you can add to your order at the end. Images of these items will be on the BotCon site in the next couple of days.

If you have not read the Information tab brochure, please do so before you register as you have 10 minutes to complete your registration before the system puts your items back into stock. You cannot hold them in your cart longer than that amount of time, however you can start over.

We do reserve the right to limit any member's quantities if we deem them excessive.

Please note that we have added a NEW item this year. Because of the concern of people not being able to participate in the class, we are offering to each registered attending member the opportunity to purchase an assembled unpainted Class Figure. This is limited to one per person, per package ordered. However, that person must pickup their items at registration. DO NOT create phantom attendees to get additional Class Figures as you will not be able to pick them up. This is NOT a souvenir and is NOT subject to the Golden Ticket souvenir rules. In addition, we will not pre-announce the figure or class kit mold, it will be a surprise!

I'll send out an email when the link is live.

See you in San Diego!

Brian

BotCon has revealed all five figures for their upcoming exclusive "MACHINE WARS: TERMINATION" box set, and now we have your first look at the character art for these amazing Transformers characters! Check out Skywarp, Megaplex, Strika, Obsidian and Hoist, with art by the very talented Josh Burcham.

Check out all the toys and find out how you can order this EXCLUSIVE five-figure box set at http://www.botcon.com/BotCon2013/

Our 5th and final reveal for the 2013 MACHINE WARS: TERMINATION box set is the Clone Army Commander... MEGAPLEX! Utilizing a very popular voyager mold from the Transformers: Prime line, this figure is the perfect compliment to this years MACHINE WARS box set!

So, who exactly IS Megaplex and what is his origin? Megaplex was built by Jhiaxus as a clone of Megatron, copying the Decepticon tyrant's aggression, cunning, and battlefield skills into a brand new body ready for the modern age. Charged with leading an assault against the planet Cybertron and securing the heart of Jhiaxus' new, unified Cybertronian Empire, Megaplex uses the traits he has inherited from Megatron with chilling efficiency as he smashes through planetary defenses and culls the planet below. Check out the Con Exclusives page for this final figure reveal.

The Termination has begun! Don't miss out on this amzing MACHINE WARS box set, available exclusively through BotCon!

The deadline to join the OFFICIAL Transformers Collectors' Club and receive the FREE 2013 Membership Incentive Figure is almost here! Join by March 16th and you will receive six issues of the TCC Magazine, exclusive offers/discounts on Transformers toys/events and the FREE 2013 Figure DEPTHCHARGE. Check out your exclusive first look at the File Card for Depthcharge and then JOIN THE TCC TODAY! https://www.toyarama.com/store/transfor ... ansformers

Here is DEPTHCHARGE - the Transformers Collectors' Club FREE Membership Incentive Figure for 2013! This figure will be sent to any Transformers Collectors’ Club member whose membership is active by March 16, 2013. Depthcharge will come with his weapon and an exclusive Tech Spec. Members can expect to receive this figure, with all his accessories, in late spring/early summer.

If you join after the March 16th deadline, you will be eligible for the 2014 figure. All previous Membership Incentive figures are SOLD OUT, so you won't want to delay.

Machine Wars Strika, the latest reveal from the 5-figure box set available exclusively at http://www.botcon.com, stopped by our page to wish all of you bots and cons out there a very Happy Valentine's Day!

Share this with YOUR Valentine and then check out her ALL-NEW toy here: http://www.botcon.com/BotCon2013/bc13exclusives.cfm