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JelZe GoldRabbit wrote:I am just speechless. They weren't kidding with the last reveal topping last year's Scorponok.

And just so you all know Oilmaster uses no new tooling whatsoever from what I can tell (ok, maybe the head), that shell is a pre-existing mold. In fact, that very shell is made from the actual Double Pretender prototype, first shown at BotCon 1996. Unreleased back in G1, now sees the light as a BotCon toy!

Also worth nothing that only the shell seems to have made it to the hard copy stage, the inner bots never did. In other words, there were no molds for the inner bots to use.

Boss Fight Studios made the shell.

SW's SilverHammer wrote:

JelZe GoldRabbit wrote:I am just speechless. They weren't kidding with the last reveal topping last year's Scorponok.

And just so you all know Oilmaster uses no new tooling whatsoever from what I can tell (ok, maybe the head), that shell is a pre-existing mold. In fact, that very shell is made from the actual Double Pretender prototype, first shown at BotCon 1996. Unreleased back in G1, now sees the light as a BotCon toy!

Also worth nothing that only the shell seems to have made it to the hard copy stage, the inner bots never did. In other words, there were no molds for the inner bots to use.

Boss Fight Studios made the shell.

Then I wonder who supplied the specifications of the original mold

JelZe GoldRabbit wrote:

SW's SilverHammer wrote:

JelZe GoldRabbit wrote:I am just speechless. They weren't kidding with the last reveal topping last year's Scorponok.

And just so you all know Oilmaster uses no new tooling whatsoever from what I can tell (ok, maybe the head), that shell is a pre-existing mold. In fact, that very shell is made from the actual Double Pretender prototype, first shown at BotCon 1996. Unreleased back in G1, now sees the light as a BotCon toy!

Also worth nothing that only the shell seems to have made it to the hard copy stage, the inner bots never did. In other words, there were no molds for the inner bots to use.

Boss Fight Studios made the shell.

Then I wonder who supplied the specifications of the original mold

Don't know, but it is different in regards to it's sculpt in the legs, chest, head, and maybe the arms.

BotCon has revealed the 5th and final exclusive figure from this year's BotCon 2015 "Cybertron's Most Wanted" box set. The last figure, Oilmaster "The Bounty Hunter", revives an abandoned Hasbro G1 concept of the "Double Pretender". The original Double Pretender Gorilla Pretender shell was first shown by Hasbro at BotCon 1996 alongside a Double Pretender Spider mold, the original G1 Unicron that was never released, and several other abandoned concepts that were never released at retail.

Apparently, the all-new Oilmaster Pretender mold was a joint venture between Fun Publications (the folks behind BotCon) and a company called "Boss Fight Studio". Here's a quote from their Facebook page regarding Oilmaster:

Boss Fight Studio is proud to have worked with Fun Publications on the 2015 Botcon convention exclusives - most especially the all new mech-gorilla Pretender shell for OILMASTER! This guy was a fun one!

To the best of our knowledge, the inner robots for Oilmaster were never made or never made it to the hard copy phase. To replace the inner robots, Oilmaster will utilize the Generations Swerve mold with his Mini-Con partner to simulate the two-robots-in-one-Pretender-shell concept.

Without further ado, please check out this exciting reveal that BotCon posted earlier this morning ...







Share your thoughts about Oilmaster by clicking here.

Overall, this set is very underwhelming. I absolutely disagree with Oilmaster being a bigger deal than Scorponok, and I didn't think Scorponok was a big deal. I wouldn't mind owning 1, but not for the price he goes for.

I think it would have been more creative to actually put the inner robots of Oilmaster into the last shell, and revealing them that way, instead of the long, boring, and uninspired way they did it.

The only figure I have a mild interest in is Battletrap, and only because I like the mold and the color. If he had Stepper's blue Micron weapon, it would be better.

So, yet again, close to $1000 saved by not going to BotCon or getting a set. I'm still interested the add-on figures, especially if the aforementioned Rodimus will be included.

Hmm. I'm not sure how I feel about this. I guess my mixed emotions all cancel each other out and leave me feeling just general apathy. I... guess it's cool? But, I dunno.

SW's SilverHammer wrote:

JelZe GoldRabbit wrote:

SW's SilverHammer wrote:

JelZe GoldRabbit wrote:I am just speechless. They weren't kidding with the last reveal topping last year's Scorponok.

And just so you all know Oilmaster uses no new tooling whatsoever from what I can tell (ok, maybe the head), that shell is a pre-existing mold. In fact, that very shell is made from the actual Double Pretender prototype, first shown at BotCon 1996. Unreleased back in G1, now sees the light as a BotCon toy!

Also worth nothing that only the shell seems to have made it to the hard copy stage, the inner bots never did. In other words, there were no molds for the inner bots to use.

Boss Fight Studios made the shell.

Then I wonder who supplied the specifications of the original mold

Don't know, but it is different in regards to it's sculpt in the legs, chest, head, and maybe the arms.

I think it's based on it visually, but it is a new mold. Maybe Pete can clarify for us?

Rodimus Prime wrote:So, yet again, close to $1000 saved by not going to BotCon or getting a set. I'm still interested the add-on figures, especially if the aforementioned Rodimus will be included.

I'm kinda bummed because I have a friend who lives in Chicago and we talked about splitting for this year's box set when they announced the convention would be in his back yard. But this set... there's nothing in it that appeals to me, just my luck. :\

Rodimus Prime wrote:Overall, this set is very underwhelming. I absolutely disagree with Oilmaster being a bigger deal than Scorponok, and I didn't think Scorponok was a big deal. I wouldn't mind owning 1, but not for the price he goes for.

I think it would have been more creative to actually put the inner robots of Oilmaster into the last shell, and revealing them that way, instead of the long, boring, and uninspired way they did it.

The only figure I have a mild interest in is Battletrap, and only because I like the mold and the color. If he had Stepper's blue Micron weapon, it would be better.

So, yet again, close to $1000 saved by not going to BotCon or getting a set. I'm still interested the add-on figures, especially if the aforementioned Rodimus will be included.

It'd be funny if it's just the springer mold repainted like cloud rodimus in polybags

While some of you will not understand my excitement for this figure, I think Oilmaster might be one of the best Transformers exclusives ever. This product will not appeal to everyone.

For me, it is the history behind this item that has me really excited. BotCon 1996 was my first BotCon. I got to see in person the Double Pretenders alongside G1 Unicron and a few other canceled Transformers toys 19 years ago at BotCon. It was really exciting because, at that time, so little was known about canceled concepts, products, etc. It was the first time those products had been shown publicly. Seeing that we'll be getting some version of this toy after all these years is really exciting to me.

Botcon exclusives should be items like that. Bringing back old concepts, finding old molds for new purposes, being a way to bring products that would otherwise never see the light of day because it is the die-hard fans that continue to fuel BotCon year after year who would be able to appreciate unique items like that.

Seeing this product continues to give me hope that we will one day be able to purchase replica vintage G1 Arcee and G1 Unicron ... and now possibly the Spider Double Pretender (maybe with an Insecticon repaint?). Fingers crossed!

SW's SilverHammer wrote:It'd be funny if it's just the springer mold repainted like cloud rodimus in polybags

I would actually prefer that. It most likely would be cheaper than the Cloud Rodimus figure.

I don't own any versions of the mold, but I might pick up all 4 of them now.

Rodimus
Springer
Sandstorm
Battletrap

JazZeke wrote:

Rodimus Prime wrote:So, yet again, close to $1000 saved by not going to BotCon or getting a set. I'm still interested the add-on figures, especially if the aforementioned Rodimus will be included.

I'm kinda bummed because I have a friend who lives in Chicago and we talked about splitting for this year's box set when they announced the convention would be in his back yard. But this set... there's nothing in it that appeals to me, just my luck. :\

So why don't you still come to BotCon as a regular attendee? Seems like an opportunity to get to hang with one of your friends, get to hang out with all of us from Seibertron.com, and opportunity to buy other Transformers toys in the dealer room still seems like a great trip, regardless of whether or not you get the box set.

Seibertron wrote:

JazZeke wrote:

Rodimus Prime wrote:So, yet again, close to $1000 saved by not going to BotCon or getting a set. I'm still interested the add-on figures, especially if the aforementioned Rodimus will be included.

I'm kinda bummed because I have a friend who lives in Chicago and we talked about splitting for this year's box set when they announced the convention would be in his back yard. But this set... there's nothing in it that appeals to me, just my luck. :\

So why don't you still come to BotCon as a regular attendee? Seems like an opportunity to get to hang with one of your friends, get to hang out with all of us from Seibertron.com, and opportunity to buy other Transformers toys in the dealer room still seems like a great trip, regardless of whether or not you get the box set.

Believe me, I am thinking about it, I had a blast at TFCon last year (and it was cool to meet you, by the way). I'm not sure I can swing the money for it though. It depends on how I'm doing financially in the next couple months.

It's certainly one of their most ambitious things I've seen them do, but I'm not a pretenders fan, so the shell will stay in the box.

Evil Swerve looks like fun though.

I'm unclear on this. Is the gorilla a new mold or not? It doesn't look like the prototype shown in 1996, and I'm not aware of any other mold that could be used as the base for this. However, an entirely new mold seems way out of Botcon's budget. Somebody please clarify.

So... Yay, a big gorilla-shaped box to store your discolored Swerve and Flanker in!
I find MP-10's collapsing and back-storing gun to be more impressive.
Abandoned ideas were abandoned for a reason, and some of them should just stay abandoned.

It's cool, but it ain't for me. All this does is give me hope that BotCon exclusives will continue to get grander and grander.

*sigh* Why did Battletrap have to be part of this set...

Pete Sinclair / Botcon wrote:"it's an all new mold"

If you look at the photograph from 1996 and compare it to the new mold, you can see the large amount of differences. I'm pretty sure a hinge for the "backpack" was not included on the original either. All G1 Pretenders had removable pieces (whether it was the back half of the figure or a removable panel) to accommodate the Pretender feature whereas this one has a hinged backpack which is a pretty nice feature.

Seibertron wrote:

Pete Sinclair / Botcon wrote:"it's an all new mold"

If you look at the photograph from 1996 and compare it to the new mold, you can see the large amount of differences. I'm pretty sure a hinge for the "backpack" was not included on the original either. All G1 Pretenders had removable pieces (whether it was the back half of the figure or a removable panel) to accommodate the Pretender feature whereas this one has a hinged backpack which is a pretty nice feature.

If that's the case then you might want to edit the news post since it includes a quote from Jelze saying it's the original.

SW's SilverHammer wrote:

Seibertron wrote:

Pete Sinclair / Botcon wrote:"it's an all new mold"

If you look at the photograph from 1996 and compare it to the new mold, you can see the large amount of differences. I'm pretty sure a hinge for the "backpack" was not included on the original either. All G1 Pretenders had removable pieces (whether it was the back half of the figure or a removable panel) to accommodate the Pretender feature whereas this one has a hinged backpack which is a pretty nice feature.

If that's the case then you might want to edit the news post since it includes a quote from Jelze saying it's the original.

Whoops! Thanks for pointing that out. I quoted his post, then got distracted with writing the actual news post instead of replying to Jelze. I forgot that quote was still in my post. Thanks for pointing it out so that I could remove it.

By no means does that thing top scorponok. Its even more lame that they have the balls to call it a "double pretender" when its clearly one robot and his super small targetmaster mini-con. The only figure I want is battletrap. Hopefully they have the brains to release the blitzwing mold as flywheels or I wont even waste my time buying battletrap. I would consider pacrat for 40 bucks maybe. Unless the exclusives are really cool Ill be saving a lot of money this year on botcon stuff which is good because I go overboard with the 3rd party stuff.

Seibertron wrote:Botcon exclusives should be items like that. Bringing back old concepts, finding old molds for new purposes, being a way to bring products that would otherwise never see the light of day because it is the die-hard fans that continue to fuel BotCon year after year who would be able to appreciate unique items like that.

Seeing this product continues to give me hope that we will one day be able to purchase replica vintage G1 Arcee and G1 Unicron ... and now possibly the Spider Double Pretender (maybe with an Insecticon repaint?). Fingers crossed!

This is the perfect point! The club should be focusing its efforts on hard to find or unreleased molds. Repaints and new headsculps can be fun, but so many times I feel we just get a repainted odd ball figure that doesn't fit the character it is supposed to represent. The Club needs to find a way to uses relevant figures with good molds.

"The Boss" Megaton is a good example of one that just misses the mark. The Prime breakdown molds never made it to the US shelves. This is why I want the mold. What I don't want is another odd repaint of Megaton that doesn't fit in with ANY fiction except being shoehorned into the club's comic.

Don’t misunderstand me. I’m not saying I hate either figure. I just am being very critical because I want the Club to be something WORTH the money we spend on them. I vote(or not) on my dollar.

I actually really dog this and I'm impressed they went the extra mile to create an entirely new mold.

I won't be attending botcon, but with all the apathy I see here, maybe I'll be able to score this guy cheaper on the secondary market.

redoutlander wrote:"The Boss" Megaton is a good example of one that just misses the mark. The Prime breakdown molds never made it to the US shelves. This is why I want the mold. What I don't want is another odd repaint of Megaton that doesn't fit in with ANY fiction except being shoehorned into the club's comic.

Don’t misunderstand me. I’m not saying I hate either figure. I just am being very critical because I want the Club to be something WORTH the money we spend on them. I vote(or not) on my dollar.

I think they missed the ball with the Breakdown mold. It should have been used last year for Cannonball. A voyager class Cannonball gives us something different and would have been a fun way to update Cannonball. Instead, we got another deluxe class Cannonball figure (the 2nd one in 8 or 9 years) which I don't think anyone was asking for (nor did anyone really want). BotCon Cannonball is an OK toy, but nothing too special that it's offering something that we already didn't have. But making Cannonball from the Voyager Class Breakdown mold would have been really awesome. The only catch with my idea is using the mold again for a primarily black toy. I'd have to see mock-ups of a Voyager Cannonball to see if it's as good as an idea as I think it was.

Seibertron wrote: I'd have to see mock-ups of a Voyager Cannonball to see if it's as good as an idea as I think it was.

Would you Accept a digibash?