Bone Age wrote:This is shaping up to be a weird poll! I am enjoying this immensely!!!!
I'm glad you're enjoying it, Bone Age. That means a lot to me!
Good evening Ghouls and Goblins. Can you feel the chill in the air? The tingle down your spine? That's not your imagination, that's the Tie Alert going off! WE HAVE A TIE! I repeat, we have a tie! The first tie of the deluxe waves. Microverse Orcanoch and Transmetal 2 Jawbreaker will both be moving on. I am rather shocked at out well the Microverse set has held on. Hasbro, pay attention! Apparently people like Microverse. Do more!
It was fairly standard after that. Blastcharge got dominated by Jetstorm with a RESOUNDING 25 votes, a figure I did not have as a kid, and always forget exists. Rattrap won handily, no surprise there. And shockingly, Buzzsaw lost to that terrible T30 Waspinator again. Apparently, I'm the only person on the face of the planet who actively hates that mold. Oh well.
Results:
Waspinator 19 / Buzzsaw 9
TM Rattrap 19 / Megatron (tele) 9
Microverse Orcanoch 14 / TM2 Jawbreaker 14
Jetstorm 25 / Blastcharge 3
It's time for ghouls and goblins, spooks and scares. Halloween is here, and what better what to celebrate that the dead rising from their graves? We've got a very special wave here for you, 16 figures that are all dead as a doornail, who never saw an actual release, and died in their cradles. That's right, this week in Canceled Beast Wars Figures!
We've got 4 categories: Orange, Wreckers, Horrorcons, and others.
The orange category consists of characters that were intended to be released in an orange color scheme in the prototype stage but were later changed. Scorponok, Tigatron, Tarantulas were all first wave releases. Only the hand-painted Tigatron has ever been seen in person. Scorponok and Tarantulas only exist in promotional images. And with 30 year old transparent plastic, their odds of floating around somewhere aren't very good. Orange TM2 Cheetor is a bit of a cheat on my part. Most of the Transmetal 2s were designed to have a running change at one point. White/Black Prowl and Creme/White Dinobot were the only two that made it to the shelf. A Yellow/Orange Cheetor was planned but never happened. Hey, he's orange, and he fit the theme. Cheetor will occasionally show up on ebay.
The Wreckers were a series of releases planned for Botcon. The prototypes were all beautifully hand-painted, and the mockups were hopped to be released in the future. They all showed up in the Wreckers comics. Then 2003 happened. Go read the wikipedia article for more information. These figures occasionally showed up at Botcon in display cases, and they are beautiful to behold. Alpha Trion came the closest to production, and was the direct inspiration for Botcon Alpha Trizer.
Horrorcons were a Walmart-exclusive Universe wave in 2004, a year already clogged with Walmart-exclusive Universe waves. The retailer pulled out, and the wave never went into production. A few prototypes will occasionally show up on ebay, and it is a known fact that Hasbro still has copies floating around. Waspinator was repainted into Skywarp colors, and Blackarachnia was also given a new deco. Cheetor was beautifully re-imagined as Nightprowler, and most bizarrely of all, Beast Wars Mutants Soundwave was repainted as Leatherhide. Of all the canceled Beast Wars releases, this one hurts the most. Especially if the packaging could have been on Walmart exclusive Beast Wars backed blister cards. Oh, my heart can't take it.
Rounding out this wave, we have two more running change Transmetal 2s. Optimus Minor was remolded in blue, indicating it was not just the four deluxes that were intended for a running change. Who his wave-mate would have been is unknown, but speculation strongly suggests Scarem. More information on the Blue Optimus Minor isn't really available, as even Hasbro seems to have lost that knowledge. Green Ramulus was so close to production, he was actually folded into the Botcon cannon as a sure thing. This one got SO CLOSE to release. A few of them *may* have made it into the wild, but mostly, he just shows up on ebay for insane prices. Lastly, we have Wasp and Blackarachnia. Wasp was a planed repaint of Animated Bumblebee, and would have made it out, if Animated hadn't been cut tragically and unceremoniously short. So many lost moments.
Binaltech Blackarachnia was intended as a repaint of Binaltech Arcee, neither of which were released in America. But by 2006/2007 the line was faltering and sales were slowing, and Takara decided to not release the second Predacon of the line. (The first was Battle Ravage. We voted for him in June. He lost against Rampage with a paltry single vote.) As an addendum, Titanium Primal Prime was the only Beast Wars figure not on this list. As the 17th candidate, I decided to exclude him, as every other Titanium figure was knocked out in the first round of voting. I am sorry, Titanium Primal Prime. You stood on the shoulders of ants, and never had a chance.
So that's our Halloween wave of creep toys from beyond the grave. OooooOOOOOOoooooOOOO. Spooky. Round 1 ends on Wednesday night, so be sure to pick your favorite creepy critter. Ready... Haunt!
https://www.polltab.com/bracket-poll/76Ip0hM9Se