1. Why Machine Wars?
Pete Sinclair wrote:Machine Wars is a very interesting line to those who were collecting back in the mid 90's. Hasbro had decided to completely revamp the Transformers brand with Beast Wars but then all of the sudden out of left field we get Machine Wars? We were going to get the best of BOTH worlds? How awesome was that. But then, as quick as they hit, they were gone. And while the Beast era is one of both mine and many fans favorite era's, there was always that what could have been for a "Machine Wars" story.
2. What was the inspiration for a Machine Wars theme?
Pete Sinclair wrote:The inspiration here is basically a "Machine Wars: Series 2." The 2013 BotCon offerings will work both as a stand alone AND as a continuation of the Machine Wars line. Once people read the fiction fans will see each toy from both series 1 and series 2 work as their own individual character.
Also, even if you did not grow up collecting Machine Wars, this set is going to be very appealing for many reasons and we anticipate that a wide range of collectors' will want to add these toys to their collections. They look really sharp!
3. Will you be using any of the existing 12 Machine Wars characters as one of the BotCon 2013 set or show exclusives or will you be expanding the Machine Wars character roster beyond the original 12?
Pete Sinclair wrote:This "Series 2" is not just a redux. Yes, there will be homage's to the original toys. But we take it a step further. Some characters will have NEW features/characteristics. Some that were basics will now be in a more appropriate voyager form. And yes, we have also added NEW characters to the Machine Wars line up. Ones that totally fit the MACHINE WARS concept i.e. these are WAR MACHINES!
Long story short, we approached this years offering as a true second series of Machine Wars toys.
4. BotCon's Machine Wars Optimus Prime's fictional appearances: faceplate or no faceplate?
Pete Sinclair wrote:Time will tell ...
5. The colors for Machine Wars Megaplex and Megatron were switched as toys (or the colors for their box artwork was reversed). Assuming these characters show up in BotCon's Machine Wars fiction, will Megatron by grey or blue and how about Megaplex?
Pete Sinclair wrote:There seems to be maybe two issues there. We have actually looked at that closely. We think that the colors were initially right but the dark blue of Megaplex became grey and the grey on Megatron became more of a teal. So the toys themselves are "right" in that regard. The Megaplex card art doesn't really look like either one so who knows what happened there.
Either way, we decided to base our deco's on "all" of the toy's we produced under the name they were sold as i.e. If we did do a Megaplex, he would look like the Megaplex sold at retail.
6. Have the location and dates for BotCon 2013 been determined? If so, can you tell us when we can expect to hear an announcement?
Pete Sinclair wrote:You can expect the announcement very VERY soon ...