What's your favorite BotCon set and why?
Posted: Fri Feb 25, 2011 4:17 amAfter kind of letting everyone know where I stand on the TFA set yesterday, I started getting questions from newer fans asking why I felt that way.
I've followed BotCon since 1996, found out about it in the spring of '96 a few months before BotCon hit the Windy City that year. I even have an article on Seibertron.com about it from the old Transformers fanzine I used to run called "Trans-Forum":
Botcon '96 Takes Over The Windy City
BotCon exclusives have changed a lot over the years. It's gone from 1 figure a year to at least 10 per year. I've seen the convention itself grow from about 600 people in 1996 to anywhere from 4,000 to 8,000 (depending on who you're talking to and high how they want to inflate the numbers). Either way, it's huge now and us fans spend a ton of money at this event every year.
Until FunPub took over back in 2005, the BotCon exclusives were kind of all over the board. The back story tied everything together but there was no annual centralized theme that FunPub started in 2005. Sure we got some great fan favorites like Transmetal Tigatron from the Japanese exclusive BW Metals Ravage mold, a canceled retail item like 94's Breakdown, Expanded Universe Sunstreaker and Sideswipe, and several others, but it wasn't until 2005 that the BotCon sets took on a life like they have today.
BOTCON 2005
I guess that's why I will always have a special place in my heart for the 2005 set. We ended up with Deathsaurus, Ratchet, and Ironhide, as well as a trio of female bikers, and a few others. At the time, this was the best Ratchet and Ironhide we had gotten. Were they the best? Not really, but at the time they were pretty unprecedented -- especially with new head sculpts which we had only received a couple of times prior with Roulette, Shadow Striker, and Sentinel Maximus. It was also the first time that we had received an actual Deathsaurus toy in the US. It was nice to finally have a toy of him. I could've done without the army of "Insecticon" clones that year, but I had fun with their galleries and ended up with triplicates of the clones and doubles of the main set ones so I had a little army to have fun with. They all came in a really nice box set. It was also the first year where there was a freebie for attendees. It was just an all around year of firsts. BotCon 2005 is the only BotCon I haven't attended since BotCon 2000. I had to really work at getting this entire set. And I had to pay a lot of money to get it post-BotCon. That set will always have a special place in my heart.
BOTCON 2006
BotCon 2006's set is probably my all-time favorite set. Beast Wars is without a doubt my favorite storyline. Getting to see the "origin" more-or-less, or at least the events leading up to the beginning of the BW cartoon series, made me a very happy fan from the get-go. I thought each figure choice was an amazing and original (and very well thought out) choice from the list of molds that BotCon had available to use. It was just an all-around amazing set in my opinion. The choice for Dinobot was one of those no-brainers, Waspinator and Megatron (what more do I need to say?), Tigatron and Cheetor were great, Optimus Primal was a really fun toy and a great homage to him being a future gorilla, and so on. It was just a fun set all around. It added to the mythos and let us spend some more time with characters whom we were all familiar with but we're no longer in the spotlight. It felt good.
BOTCON 2007
And then 2007 came around. The Games of Deception set was a no-brainer set. Hasbro was unsure if they were going to continue Classics at the time (which had probably not launched yet when the BotCon '07 figures were being planned) so they went ahead and gave us the ultimate set to help us complete our Classics collection. The set was a HUGE hit with those who could attend and it was the source of much understandable dread, heated debates, frustration and anger for those who could not attend due to the exclusivity of a set of highly desirable figures (most notably Thrust, Dirge, and Thundercracker all of whom would see retail releases 3 to 4 years later in the US). Have to give Alpha Trion an honorable mention as well -- great use of a mold. Regardless of what side of the fence you were on with this set, it was hard not to appreciate the set for what it was -- an extremely desirable set that was a must have item for Transformers fans around the world.
BOTCON 2008
Since 2007, the sets have frustrated me as a fan. For 3 years, I got what I wanted more-or-less. In 2008, it seemed that BotCon had come up with the ultimate solution to the "problem" with 2007's set. Give the fans an alternate reality set where the heroic Autobots are evil and the evil Decepticons are heroic. Can't mess up the fans who can't make it by giving them something that Hasbro will never make, right? For FunPub/BotCon, it was a brilliant move but I'm still frustrated that the fandom fell for this ... and many fans, much to my dismay, welcomed it with open arms and greedy hands. I couldn't believe that people would want an evil Optimus Prime or a heroic Megatron. And Raksha was no where to be found (my how the fandom has changed over the years)! I can't think of a lot of Marvel Comics stories where the entire universe was turned upside down with good being bad and bad being good, but I can think of a lot of DC Comics stories where that happened. Maybe it's just personal preference -- I like to keep my good guys good and my bad guys bad. Despite my feelings about this set's storyline, I did really enjoy quite a few figures from that set. Megatron is one of my all-time favorites, the black Rodimus with a goatee was just a fun toy and was a nice (intentional or unintentional) nod to Spock in the Star Trek "Mirror, Mirror" episode, a Jetfire inspired Starscream, and we even got a new Goldbug and "Classics" styled Jazz to boot. They were fun toys regardless of the story. The choices still made sense despite my annoyance with the theme.
BOTCON 2009
It's two years later and I still don't know what to think of this set. Elite Guard. Hm. I guess I just think it was a boring set. Couldn't care less about Landshark and Flak. Thought Kup was a really poor choice of a mold. Leozack, Skyquake, Razorclaw, Scourge, and Banzai-Tron were my favorites but the Autobots just didn't do it for me that year. The whole set just felt kind of blah to me. And if you look at the aftermarket values on this set, I apparently wasn't alone.
BOTCON 2010
I think I got bit by the "build up too much excitement for the idea behind the theme" and then "here are the reveals" problem. A G2 set? Holy hell that could/would/should be awesome. It's like Shattered Glass done right in my book. Just think of the possibilities! Hero Prime! Hero Megatron! Black Sideswipe! Purple Ramjet! Teal Grimlock! New updates of Go-Bots! G2 Onslaught! G2 Silverbolt! G2 Minibots 2 pack with Beachbomber and Bumblebee! Hot Spot (Hot Zone) from Inferno! Maybe they'll go balls-to-the-wall and give us a BotCon exclusive G2 Stunticons and/or Protectobots set in tune with the TCC Seacons set. And to make up for it TRU could sell the G1 versions a year later to help break up the costs of busting out those molds. My mind was all over this pipe dream. And even with some of the crazy ideas I had, I could also quickly see why you wouldn't want to do it. But I had high hopes with the 2005 through 2008 sets that the BotCon folks could wow me with their creativeness, in spite of the lackluster 2009 set. Unfortunately, I never felt that way with any of them other than G2 Breakdown. At least not with the G2 theme. See, I actually like most of them, I just feel like the set wasn't a G2 set. It was more like a G1.5 set with Clench/Colussus and Pyro/Spark. I know some of you think they're G2 but they were the tail end of G1. Sky-byte had no business being in this set and we certainly didn't need a 3 pack of Sky-Bytes either. Double Punch, Slicer, Turbomaster and SG Ravage were all very clever. Still can't wait to do Double Punch's gallery. Not sure what to make of Cindersaur yet to this date. It was a "cute" idea, but without Classics versions of the other Firecons, Cindersaur will look very odd next to his European G2 Firecon counterparts. Speaking of which, I guess that was the other reason why the set kind of rubbed me the wrong way ... 5 of these characters were nods to European exclusive figures, 4 had nothing to do with G1 or G2, and 1 was a canceled Protectobot and then there was Breakdown who was the only figure that really made sense to me and was really a no-brainer considering G2 Breakdown was the very first BotCon exclusive. Don't even get me started on using Sideswipe for the custom class. That was just a poorly thought out decision. Toss out Cindersaur, make him the custom class figure, give us Sideswipe. Or give us both and BotCon makes another $50 off all of us and the class could make G1 Breakdown out of G2 Breakdown. Ah well, can't make everyone happy I told myself. Just enjoy it for what it is and just have fun with it.
BOTCON 2011
The Invasion Begins! Oh wait, that was BotCon 2011's theme during the summer of 2010. Maybe there's still a way to salvage "The Invasion Begins" with the Transformers Animated Stunticons. Maybe they pretend to be Autobots and invade cities. I thought "The Invasion Begins" had something to do with the Shattered Glass universe spilling over into the Classics Universe. Isn't that what was going on with SG Ravage and Slicer/SG Wheeljack? Time will tell I'm sure. While I wasn't excited about more Shattered Glass stuff, I'm sure the toys would at least be exciting especially with possibly a few more Classics nods. Regardless, we're stuck in this alternate universe where we're getting a Transformers Animated theme instead. I'm OK with that. I really enjoy TFA so maybe they'll give us a couple of figures that Hasbro and Takara have decided NOT to give us after 3 years. Notice that I said 3 years. This is very different than 2007's Seekers because the Classics line had just started. TFA toys started showing up in the spring of 2008. Hasbro's been done with the line for about two years now aside from a few exclusives here and there. Takara's run of TFA came and went over the past year as well. If it hasn't been announced at this stage, we're not going to get things like Thundercracker or Bumblebee-Wasp, etc. But I understand not going that route because of the sensitivities to 2007. So let's see what we've got. TFA Stunticons, huh? I've already ranted and raved about this years set plenty over the past few weeks so I'll just sum it up quickly here: the Arcee mold should have been Dead End, the Jazz mold should've used for one of the other 3, and the Wreck-Gar mold should've been used for Motormaster. At the very least, the Optimus Prime mold should NOT in any way have been used as a black repaint for another character. We've got enough black Optimus Primes over the years, including a black TFA Optimus Prime that came out in Japan about 6 to 8 months ago. I didn't want or need another. I know the people involved with BotCon can come up with better stuff than this. I've seen it during the first 4 years and even with the last two there were better choices made than a drag queen reference and another black Optimus Prime with an out-of-place head. I expect better products from the BotCon folks because I've seen what they can do. I'm openly stating how I feel about this because if I don't say anything, nothing will ever change. Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. After 3 years of lackluster exclusives, I've decided that it's time to say something and get people rallied up because I know the BotCon folks can do better than this.
CONCLUSION
The BotCon 2006 set is my favorite set. In my opinion, it's the most well thought out set and gives us nods to a lot of mainstream and popular characters at the same time in a way that Hasbro will never make. To me, this is the epitome of what the convention sets should be. It should build upon a part of the mythos that we haven't seen before. It should be like a behind-the-scenes set. An insider's look at the Transformers war. A "meanwhile, on the other side of the galaxy of the story you're familiar with" type of thing.
I've followed BotCon since 1996, found out about it in the spring of '96 a few months before BotCon hit the Windy City that year. I even have an article on Seibertron.com about it from the old Transformers fanzine I used to run called "Trans-Forum":
Botcon '96 Takes Over The Windy City
BotCon exclusives have changed a lot over the years. It's gone from 1 figure a year to at least 10 per year. I've seen the convention itself grow from about 600 people in 1996 to anywhere from 4,000 to 8,000 (depending on who you're talking to and high how they want to inflate the numbers). Either way, it's huge now and us fans spend a ton of money at this event every year.
Until FunPub took over back in 2005, the BotCon exclusives were kind of all over the board. The back story tied everything together but there was no annual centralized theme that FunPub started in 2005. Sure we got some great fan favorites like Transmetal Tigatron from the Japanese exclusive BW Metals Ravage mold, a canceled retail item like 94's Breakdown, Expanded Universe Sunstreaker and Sideswipe, and several others, but it wasn't until 2005 that the BotCon sets took on a life like they have today.
BOTCON 2005
I guess that's why I will always have a special place in my heart for the 2005 set. We ended up with Deathsaurus, Ratchet, and Ironhide, as well as a trio of female bikers, and a few others. At the time, this was the best Ratchet and Ironhide we had gotten. Were they the best? Not really, but at the time they were pretty unprecedented -- especially with new head sculpts which we had only received a couple of times prior with Roulette, Shadow Striker, and Sentinel Maximus. It was also the first time that we had received an actual Deathsaurus toy in the US. It was nice to finally have a toy of him. I could've done without the army of "Insecticon" clones that year, but I had fun with their galleries and ended up with triplicates of the clones and doubles of the main set ones so I had a little army to have fun with. They all came in a really nice box set. It was also the first year where there was a freebie for attendees. It was just an all around year of firsts. BotCon 2005 is the only BotCon I haven't attended since BotCon 2000. I had to really work at getting this entire set. And I had to pay a lot of money to get it post-BotCon. That set will always have a special place in my heart.
BOTCON 2006
BotCon 2006's set is probably my all-time favorite set. Beast Wars is without a doubt my favorite storyline. Getting to see the "origin" more-or-less, or at least the events leading up to the beginning of the BW cartoon series, made me a very happy fan from the get-go. I thought each figure choice was an amazing and original (and very well thought out) choice from the list of molds that BotCon had available to use. It was just an all-around amazing set in my opinion. The choice for Dinobot was one of those no-brainers, Waspinator and Megatron (what more do I need to say?), Tigatron and Cheetor were great, Optimus Primal was a really fun toy and a great homage to him being a future gorilla, and so on. It was just a fun set all around. It added to the mythos and let us spend some more time with characters whom we were all familiar with but we're no longer in the spotlight. It felt good.
BOTCON 2007
And then 2007 came around. The Games of Deception set was a no-brainer set. Hasbro was unsure if they were going to continue Classics at the time (which had probably not launched yet when the BotCon '07 figures were being planned) so they went ahead and gave us the ultimate set to help us complete our Classics collection. The set was a HUGE hit with those who could attend and it was the source of much understandable dread, heated debates, frustration and anger for those who could not attend due to the exclusivity of a set of highly desirable figures (most notably Thrust, Dirge, and Thundercracker all of whom would see retail releases 3 to 4 years later in the US). Have to give Alpha Trion an honorable mention as well -- great use of a mold. Regardless of what side of the fence you were on with this set, it was hard not to appreciate the set for what it was -- an extremely desirable set that was a must have item for Transformers fans around the world.
BOTCON 2008
Since 2007, the sets have frustrated me as a fan. For 3 years, I got what I wanted more-or-less. In 2008, it seemed that BotCon had come up with the ultimate solution to the "problem" with 2007's set. Give the fans an alternate reality set where the heroic Autobots are evil and the evil Decepticons are heroic. Can't mess up the fans who can't make it by giving them something that Hasbro will never make, right? For FunPub/BotCon, it was a brilliant move but I'm still frustrated that the fandom fell for this ... and many fans, much to my dismay, welcomed it with open arms and greedy hands. I couldn't believe that people would want an evil Optimus Prime or a heroic Megatron. And Raksha was no where to be found (my how the fandom has changed over the years)! I can't think of a lot of Marvel Comics stories where the entire universe was turned upside down with good being bad and bad being good, but I can think of a lot of DC Comics stories where that happened. Maybe it's just personal preference -- I like to keep my good guys good and my bad guys bad. Despite my feelings about this set's storyline, I did really enjoy quite a few figures from that set. Megatron is one of my all-time favorites, the black Rodimus with a goatee was just a fun toy and was a nice (intentional or unintentional) nod to Spock in the Star Trek "Mirror, Mirror" episode, a Jetfire inspired Starscream, and we even got a new Goldbug and "Classics" styled Jazz to boot. They were fun toys regardless of the story. The choices still made sense despite my annoyance with the theme.
BOTCON 2009
It's two years later and I still don't know what to think of this set. Elite Guard. Hm. I guess I just think it was a boring set. Couldn't care less about Landshark and Flak. Thought Kup was a really poor choice of a mold. Leozack, Skyquake, Razorclaw, Scourge, and Banzai-Tron were my favorites but the Autobots just didn't do it for me that year. The whole set just felt kind of blah to me. And if you look at the aftermarket values on this set, I apparently wasn't alone.
BOTCON 2010
I think I got bit by the "build up too much excitement for the idea behind the theme" and then "here are the reveals" problem. A G2 set? Holy hell that could/would/should be awesome. It's like Shattered Glass done right in my book. Just think of the possibilities! Hero Prime! Hero Megatron! Black Sideswipe! Purple Ramjet! Teal Grimlock! New updates of Go-Bots! G2 Onslaught! G2 Silverbolt! G2 Minibots 2 pack with Beachbomber and Bumblebee! Hot Spot (Hot Zone) from Inferno! Maybe they'll go balls-to-the-wall and give us a BotCon exclusive G2 Stunticons and/or Protectobots set in tune with the TCC Seacons set. And to make up for it TRU could sell the G1 versions a year later to help break up the costs of busting out those molds. My mind was all over this pipe dream. And even with some of the crazy ideas I had, I could also quickly see why you wouldn't want to do it. But I had high hopes with the 2005 through 2008 sets that the BotCon folks could wow me with their creativeness, in spite of the lackluster 2009 set. Unfortunately, I never felt that way with any of them other than G2 Breakdown. At least not with the G2 theme. See, I actually like most of them, I just feel like the set wasn't a G2 set. It was more like a G1.5 set with Clench/Colussus and Pyro/Spark. I know some of you think they're G2 but they were the tail end of G1. Sky-byte had no business being in this set and we certainly didn't need a 3 pack of Sky-Bytes either. Double Punch, Slicer, Turbomaster and SG Ravage were all very clever. Still can't wait to do Double Punch's gallery. Not sure what to make of Cindersaur yet to this date. It was a "cute" idea, but without Classics versions of the other Firecons, Cindersaur will look very odd next to his European G2 Firecon counterparts. Speaking of which, I guess that was the other reason why the set kind of rubbed me the wrong way ... 5 of these characters were nods to European exclusive figures, 4 had nothing to do with G1 or G2, and 1 was a canceled Protectobot and then there was Breakdown who was the only figure that really made sense to me and was really a no-brainer considering G2 Breakdown was the very first BotCon exclusive. Don't even get me started on using Sideswipe for the custom class. That was just a poorly thought out decision. Toss out Cindersaur, make him the custom class figure, give us Sideswipe. Or give us both and BotCon makes another $50 off all of us and the class could make G1 Breakdown out of G2 Breakdown. Ah well, can't make everyone happy I told myself. Just enjoy it for what it is and just have fun with it.
BOTCON 2011
The Invasion Begins! Oh wait, that was BotCon 2011's theme during the summer of 2010. Maybe there's still a way to salvage "The Invasion Begins" with the Transformers Animated Stunticons. Maybe they pretend to be Autobots and invade cities. I thought "The Invasion Begins" had something to do with the Shattered Glass universe spilling over into the Classics Universe. Isn't that what was going on with SG Ravage and Slicer/SG Wheeljack? Time will tell I'm sure. While I wasn't excited about more Shattered Glass stuff, I'm sure the toys would at least be exciting especially with possibly a few more Classics nods. Regardless, we're stuck in this alternate universe where we're getting a Transformers Animated theme instead. I'm OK with that. I really enjoy TFA so maybe they'll give us a couple of figures that Hasbro and Takara have decided NOT to give us after 3 years. Notice that I said 3 years. This is very different than 2007's Seekers because the Classics line had just started. TFA toys started showing up in the spring of 2008. Hasbro's been done with the line for about two years now aside from a few exclusives here and there. Takara's run of TFA came and went over the past year as well. If it hasn't been announced at this stage, we're not going to get things like Thundercracker or Bumblebee-Wasp, etc. But I understand not going that route because of the sensitivities to 2007. So let's see what we've got. TFA Stunticons, huh? I've already ranted and raved about this years set plenty over the past few weeks so I'll just sum it up quickly here: the Arcee mold should have been Dead End, the Jazz mold should've used for one of the other 3, and the Wreck-Gar mold should've been used for Motormaster. At the very least, the Optimus Prime mold should NOT in any way have been used as a black repaint for another character. We've got enough black Optimus Primes over the years, including a black TFA Optimus Prime that came out in Japan about 6 to 8 months ago. I didn't want or need another. I know the people involved with BotCon can come up with better stuff than this. I've seen it during the first 4 years and even with the last two there were better choices made than a drag queen reference and another black Optimus Prime with an out-of-place head. I expect better products from the BotCon folks because I've seen what they can do. I'm openly stating how I feel about this because if I don't say anything, nothing will ever change. Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. After 3 years of lackluster exclusives, I've decided that it's time to say something and get people rallied up because I know the BotCon folks can do better than this.
CONCLUSION
The BotCon 2006 set is my favorite set. In my opinion, it's the most well thought out set and gives us nods to a lot of mainstream and popular characters at the same time in a way that Hasbro will never make. To me, this is the epitome of what the convention sets should be. It should build upon a part of the mythos that we haven't seen before. It should be like a behind-the-scenes set. An insider's look at the Transformers war. A "meanwhile, on the other side of the galaxy of the story you're familiar with" type of thing.
). The souvenir figures were also fantastic. Alpha Trion is one of my favorite figures in my collection. Weird Wolf was a great use of a great figure and Huffer is all kinds of awesome.