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That Bot wrote: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.

It looks to be a new mold, with some caveats:

1) the creation itself was outsourced to another company called Boss Fight Studios.
2) the overall design is based on, but not an exact match to the Double Pretender prototype. Who supplied the schematics, if any, we don't know.

It is feasible that it was done with Hasbro's permission, and they supplied the design sketches for FunPub and Boss Fight to use.

I thought this year's botcon stuff was pointless... Until I saw this. Words can't convey how much I want this. If anyone is going this year and wants to unload this, don't hesitate to let me know, I'll gladly take it off of your hands. I was not expecting this at all.

this set went from being absolute garbage to everyone wanting one, hasbro has no idea how to make toys but they do know how to screw people out of their money. But it really is a shame cause bringing back pretenders would be a nice change of pace and im sure this one would sell at mass retail easy.

Desslok2201 wrote:I thought this year's botcon stuff was pointless... Until I saw this. Words can't convey how much I want this. If anyone is going this year and wants to unload this, don't hesitate to let me know, I'll gladly take it off of your hands. I was not expecting this at all.

I second this. If ANYONE wants to sell off a Megatron, Stepper or Oilmaster I will not hesitate to buy any of them at the right price. I LOVE shattered glass but dont have the money to buy an expensive one on Ebay; That Megatron really looks like my type, and I WANT a good pretender, which that is. PLEASE CONTACT ME. I WILL BUY AT GOOD PRICE!

wow, this year and last year are both bad.

Well, we all knew it would happen eventually. He's a trukk......but he's also a munkey!

That's... kinda really cool. Wasn't sure at first why they used Swerve but it appears that he was a truck in one of the E-Hobby comics. May have to get this box set for him, Battletrap and Megs (as confusing as he is, I do think he makes a good Megatron, just not a DOTM Megs.)

This is one of the weirdest and craziest sets I've ever seen. It's all over the map so much it has frequent flier miles.

You have CHUG, with G1 (actual G1, which is impressive, I admit) and...Arms Micron? I...words fail me. I really don't get it. Fortunately, none of the figures are overtly ugly, so they do have that going for them. I mean, there were some years where it was just...wow, where's a lightswitch to kill these lights kinda ugly.

The one thing that angers me is Megatron. "The tooling is too expensive to bring Breakdown to the US at this time." (I'm paraphrasing, but that was the gist.) Now it's "Oh, wait. You want to pay us to get access to the Takara molds so you can sell it at an exorbitant amount and screw people out of their money even more, as well as rub it in people's faces that they couldn't get a Breakdown but we're now using this mold to fleece the fans? YOU BETCHA!"

See, it's the Seekers all over again, but the final laugh was had by the fans because the public and the average fan finally got them, not just the power buyers who were willing to fling themselves across the country and world via plane to get to them. Here, it's a mold that many wanted, but never could have access to and will never get, outside of a select few willing to spend even more this year because the prices have gone up and it just reeks of horrible mishandling of the mold and the fans.

No sir, I don't like it!

This botcon box set was like watching a train wreck.

SW's SilverHammer wrote:This botcon box set was like watching a train wreck.

LOL....you must be joking.

Autobot032 wrote:

SW's SilverHammer wrote:This botcon box set was like watching a train wreck.

Like I said on the galleries page, the worst part about the set is how it lacks any direction, even though the lack there of is the direction. However it doesn't go far enough in its lack of Direction, if anything this boxset should be using some form of Dadaism to show how abstract it's setting is. However it still tries to be grounded with the "Cybertron's Most Wanted" aspect which is supposed to be all the figures fans and the club have wanted for years; according to the club. Basically, what i'm saying is, it should've either done away with the theme used some artistic expression that embraced chaos and irrationality for the boxset, or made it a coherent themed boxset focused on one thing. Seeing as the Oilmaster is the main spectacle, it probably should've focused on unproduced figures and concepts made contemporary.

I think they missed an opportunity with Oilmaster's name. Are both robots Olimaster? It should have been a compound word, such as Throwdown, with one being 'Throw' and another being 'Down' and both called 'Throwdown' when in the shell. Just a thought.

Desslok2201 wrote:I think they missed an opportunity with Oilmaster's name. Are both robots Olimaster? It should have been a compound word, such as Throwdown, with one being 'Throw' and another being 'Down' and both called 'Throwdown' when in the shell. Just a thought.

It's a bit forced, sadly: his fiction debut was in Badlands, the comic included with Gen. Magnificus, which also give him his name (based on a Japanese blogger whose name translates to "Oil Master").

JelZe GoldRabbit wrote:

Desslok2201 wrote:I think they missed an opportunity with Oilmaster's name. Are both robots Olimaster? It should have been a compound word, such as Throwdown, with one being 'Throw' and another being 'Down' and both called 'Throwdown' when in the shell. Just a thought.

It's a bit forced, sadly: his fiction debut was in Badlands, the comic included with Gen. Magnificus, which also give him his name (based on a Japanese blogger whose name translates to "Oil Master").

That in no way makes me love this any less. I hope that this is a trend that continues with the club. I would love to see the unreleased micromaster base see the light of day.

Thinking TFCC has become desperate enough to use a new mold for a Botcon toy. Probably because it's becoming harder to convince fans to spend over $70 for each Botcon toy. that's just a repaint with maybe a new head.

Think TFCC is finding it harder each year to compete with Third party companies.

Battletrap i'm interested in, but the others I can easily live without.

Maybe the at show releases will be a bit more interesting but so far... Meh.

Think, Had the mecha gorilla pretender shell been fully articulated it would have been worth buying. With almost no articulation, it's a easy pass.

Think this is the way PWTT needed to design their pretender toys. With just creating fully articulated pretender shells. then using HasTak Legends class toys to fit inside the shells.

Tsutsukakushi wrote:Thinking TFCC has to be desperate enough to use a new mold for a Botcon toy. Probably because it's becoming a harder to convince fans to spend over $70 for each Botcon toy. that's just a repaint with maybe a new head.

Think TFCC is finding it harder each year to compete with Third party companies.

Nah, I think it's more like trying to step up their game and surprise us with things we initially thought of as inconceivable. Besides, a Matryushka Doll for all intents and purposes, is easier to make than a whole new Transformers figure from scratch, especially if you have a model beforehand .

And I just read that Boss Fight Studios has been responsible for all the BotCon retools done in the recent years, like the new heads. Just another walk in the park for them.

JelZe GoldRabbit wrote:

Tsutsukakushi wrote:Thinking TFCC has to be desperate enough to use a new mold for a Botcon toy. Probably because it's becoming a harder to convince fans to spend over $70 for each Botcon toy. that's just a repaint with maybe a new head.

Think TFCC is finding it harder each year to compete with Third party companies.

Nah, I think it's more like trying to step up their game and surprise us with things we initially thought of as inconceivable. Besides, a Matryushka Doll for all intents and purposes, is easier to make than a whole new Transformers figure from scratch, especially if you have a model beforehand .

And I just read that Boss Fight Studios has been responsible for all the BotCon retools done in the recent years, like the new heads. Just another walk in the park for them.

Doesn't Boss Fight do the JoeCon stuff as well?

Wow, had to skip to 2:20 just to get to the figure. And this guy takes a long time to say nothing. The figure is cool though. Too bad I don't have lots of money or a trip to BotCon.

EDIT: Also: I love me some pretenders. Wish I could get this guy.

Also: THIS ISN'T EVEN MY FINAL FORM!

Yeah, this is definitely the cherry on top for the set. Really a nice surprise. Hope they can do more like this. Some people had talked about wanting totally new characters again, and this is certainly the way to do it!

As for the bots collected in the set... they do seem to be an oddly mismatched collection. Maybe when the story, comic, and box are revealed they will seem more coherent as a group. (?)

I'm guessing they are slaves to constraints like... well... making sure all the figures FIT in the box, for one. Others being not wanting two of the same mold (or troop builders) in the box together. Guessing all of that ties their hands and dictates what goes in the box set, whether it looks "matchy" or not.

I do think the colors look good together, which is a plus.

Would not be the least bit surprised to see this 2015 Botcon Gorilla shell box set toy. get repurposed as a Botcon 2015 add on toy. Thinking TFCC will do a Beast Wars Optimus Primal with a inner robot being a legends class CHUG G1 Optimus Prime toy. to spoof the Trukk not monkey fan joke.

Either way, TFCC paid a lot of money to create this Gorilla shell. Don't think they'll use it once and that's it. TFCC will probably use it multiple times for Botcon, club and subscription toys.

chuckdawg1999 wrote:

Rodimus Prime wrote:

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

GO-GO Triple Changers!

Boss Fight are a group of former Hasbro employees that do freelance design work for Hasbro and Fun Pub. It's possible they knew what the original Pretender was supposed to look like. What's On Joe Mind? has had them on the show a few times.

I'm confused, were double Pretenders supposed to be different from the Pretenders who had shells that could transform and combine with the inner robot?

two individual robots in the shell, that could combine into one larger robot.