The Energon Pub

Seibertron.com is live at BotCon 2013. We're hard at work to bring all of you the latest news from this special Transformers event.

We've spent tonight plowing through a mini-gallery of the 14 exclusive toys and 5 Kreons that you can only get exclusively at BotCon 2013, most of which belong to this year's Machine Wars theme. The 14 figures that you can get at BotCon are Strika, Obsidian, Megaplex, Hoist, Skywarp, Thundercracker, Electrons, Sandstorm, Mirage, Starscream, Sunstorm, Bitstream, and Hotlink. Blastcharge (the recolored Strika) is this year's custom class figure. The 5 figure Kre-o set that you can get contains 5 figures of the characters from the Machine Wars box set. Check out our gallery of this year's exclusives by clicking on any of the images below or by clicking here.

so.... whatsup with the name of the rainmakers? What happen to acid storm? is hotlink suppose to be the air warrior seeker? a bit confused there but I want it

Damn it! Just when i was satisfied that i would not be after any figures this year, funpub pull some more classics seekers out of the bag. I have already bought a set off eBay. Oh well, so much for eating this month!

No one noticed the severe amount of typos on BItstreams tech spec?

mooncake623 wrote:so.... whatsup with the name of the rainmakers? What happen to acid storm? is hotlink suppose to be the air warrior seeker? a bit confused there but I want it

As someone pointed out in another thread, this guys are not the rainmakers per say.

The rainmakers, are the neon coloured dudes from "Divide and Conquer"


The bright yellow one is NOT Sunstorm, as claimed by hasbro a few years back.

These guys are a homage to the seeker group with no name from G1's 1st episodes.



"Rainmakers" were probably used for trademark reasons or just as something identifiable.

Absolutely love the bios for Starscream and the Rainmakers. Megaplex's bio struck me as my favorite out of all of them. Megatron's rage building inside him, just itching to be released? Love it!

Mirage's art is just way too thin. Yeesh.

So yeah, I feel Starscream and Electrons, both toy and bio (despite Electro's not mentioning Gold Plastic Syndrome for shits and giggles. Bad, FunPub, bad!), are probably the best out of all the other exlusives.

Off topic question: do they normally do new Transformers reveals at BotCon? I haven't had coffee in a while, so my mind's a little kaput. Oh, the irony...

data81 wrote:No one noticed the severe amount of typos on BItstreams tech spec?

Only thing I caught was "technology genius", where it should be "technological genius". I don't see anything out of the ordinary.

The numbers are all wrong...or am I seeing things?

data81 wrote:The numbers are all wrong...or am I seeing things?

Oh, the numbers? Thought you meant the bio itself, as in grammatical errors.

I have no idea if they're off, sorry.

Is anyone else getting a Beast Wars Cheetor vibe from him? Transmetal movie style Cheetor...sweet.

data81 wrote:The numbers are all wrong...or am I seeing things?

Yep, you're totally right! I initially though that the graphic was right and the numbers wrong because a speed of 7 seems a little low for a seeker, but then I noticed that Hotlink's speed is only 6!

Anyone else notice that Thundercracker's bio mentions Soundwave?

I have to see if he's in the comic and what chassis he's using. It may be worth the time tracking down the original mold and including it with the team. The Stalker mold aged pretty well... the only thing I don't like about it is the chest cavity.

Or there's always customs...

I had a feeling the attendee exclusives wouldn't be that good. Seems I was right. Starscream is the biggest disappointment. I understand it's not the original Starscream in a different body, but come on, they couldn't make him a voyager?

Yup, Starscream is a disappointment indeed...oh what could have been. IMO the artwork for most of these bio cards are really crappy. Fortunately I don't pay too much attention to bio's and stats even the one's I do own.

I already have the real rainmakers from CHMS, i.e. Acidstorm, Hailstorm and Solarstorm.

Like someone pointed out this exclusive set is an entirely different group of seekers. Still they look good so i might get them.

I can live without all the others.

data81 wrote:No one noticed the severe amount of typos on BItstreams tech spec?

I noticed the word "from" was missing. As in "removed from the cyber world."

I didn't think I was going to get ANY Botcon figures this year, but dammit, I HAVE to have that Mirage in my collection.

Electrons is oddly attractive to me as well, for some reason.

Yeah, bringing us three bots FROM THE FIRST EPISODE and some new G1 canon characters — besides the rainmakers — is a stroke of genius. I'm quite excited about those new seekers. Bravo, Botcon team. Bravo!

As for the others, I'm less excited about the movieverse ones, but Mirage, Electro, Strika, Blastcharge and Hubcap are definitely nicely done. And adding Electro to the G2 Botcon lineup will be a thing of beauty.

Lastly, I have to add... it's funny how many people are complaining Starscream isn't a giant. I saw that as a MAJOR flaw to the originals. Prime was tiny, Starscream was 5 times taller than the other figures. Megaplex was a feeble "Cyberverse" size. They were all insanely out of proportion and clearly molds not intended for those characters at all — in color, head sculpt, face plates, size, or just about any aspect besides general vehicle form of jet, truck, etc.

I think this set — with jets all at the same size — remedies a decade long botch job. I'm VERY glad they made the seekers the same size, and Megaplex larger. They will display together nicely, and maybe the subscription service will throw us one of the missing characters like Soundwave.

All that said — and while Machine Wars is an odd line with varying degrees of nostalgia from the fans — I have to say I have a special memory about it. It was the one line I found ON SHELF at one visit, purchased in entirety, and walked out of KayBee into the mall with the whole line IN ONE GIANT BAG. Sheesh, I have no idea why they had a bag that big. It was massive. Clearly, the stuff of dreams to any kid.

Hotlink: Decepticon Master of Sausage.

Figures. I find decent eBay prices on all of these guys so I pull the trigger, only for BBTS to undercut all those prices.

Oh well, that's the nature of the game.

What's the matter Hoist? Your arms look droopy.



I see, your shoulders are misassembled on all your copies, yet all Electrons are fine?

I realy wanted a MW Starscream made from TFPR Dreadwing/Skyquake mold , but instead of that, Funpub give to us a simply repaint of Terradive...

(I REALLY, REALLY LIKE THAT RAINMAKERS, JUST A INTEAD BUY )

I totally disagree about the artwork for the cards. I'm LOVING it. Really nice, stylized, and reminiscent of Geoff Senior's G2 Comic illustrations. Bravo there.

Also like that the seekers are a bit more standard G1 looking in their art.

JelZe GoldRabbit wrote:I see, your shoulders are misassembled on all your copies, yet all Electrons are fine?

Hoist forgot to pay some dues to Black Shadow and the Space Mafia, so they had a little... visit with him.

Regarding the seeker trio...

Aw, curse you Hasbro for making this a Botcon exclusive.
Translation: super expensive.
this could have been released in stores as a Target OR TRU exclusive, as a way to compete with Takara's re-release of the seekers box set. God bless it, this hobby is SO expensive, especially this year it seems.