The Energon Pub

[Bonecrusher27]

Dear People,

I've often seen black or dark versions of Prime, Megatron, etc, and wondered what's the background of these versions? If I recall correctly, I've seen dark versions of the MP series, a Dark Rodimus, and currently my supplier is selling Darkside Cybertron Prime and Megatron.

What's the origin of this trend? The only thing I know of is in the Cybertron series, there is a scene where Megatron gets some dark power and becomes a blacker version. But other than that? Comics maybe?

Thanks

[Jelze Bunnycat]

O ho, the "black version" trend goes back way further than that. The earliest "black repaint" is also one of the most well known: G1 Skywarp

The earliest "black clone" however is Beast Wars II Black Lioconvoy from 1998, released only in Japan. The best known has to be RiD Scourge aka Car Robot Black Convoy from 2000/2001, who would become the archetype of every Nemesis Prime and Black Prime repaint to date:



As you can probably tell, it's mostly a Japanese phenomenon. They're nuts about limited black editions of toys, and it's not limited to Transformers: even Super Sentai, the line Power Rangers was adapted from has a couple of black toys, always limited editions.

[Overcracker]

Ah yes the Black repaints. Japan has a fetish with Evil dark versions of their heroes.

Yes, in 2000 The Car Robots Line which would later become Robots in Disguise in the West, would feature an actual Evil Optimus Prime clone. Black Convoy.

The fad up until then had mostly been the Translucent Orange repaints, normally referred to as FireGuts X. X stands for the figure in question.

Before Scourge came to Western Markets, Japan was already in love with the black repaint and put out Nucleon Quest Convoy a black repaint of Powermaster Optimus Prime a.k.a Super Ginrai.

They are almost always exclusives, and they are almost always very very cool.

[Jelze Bunnycat]

The fad up until then had mostly been the Translucent Orange repaints, normally referred to as FireGuts X. X stands for the figure in question.

I find that hard to believe actually.

[Bonecrusher27]

Ah I see... thanks guys! So it's all about good looks, which isn't surprising, since black is my personal favourite colour. I just wondered if there was something in the stories that explained these things. Black just works so well... if I had the money I would have bought a few black versions for various incarnations of Prime. Well actually it's not so much money as lack of space

[Bonecrusher27]

Lol! I just received a pre-order e-mail from my supplier for an MP-09B Rodimus Convoy right now!

[Overcracker]

Sorry, it was either FireGuts, or Burning. but there were orange retools of several things.

Including Beast Convoy, and Power Master Prime, there hadn't really been a black Hero up until Black Convoy.

Heck even G1 Prime got the totally Black treatment after Car Robots, courtesy of the Jafcon exclusive.

[Jelze Bunnycat]

Sorry, it was either FireGuts, or Burning. but there were orange retools of several things.

Including Beast Convoy, and Power Master Prime, there hadn't really been a black Hero up until Black Convoy.

Heck even G1 Prime got the totally Black treatment after Car Robots, courtesy of the Jafcon exclusive.

Well, the only "fire guts" or "burning" exclusives that I know of are, in order:

BW Burning Convoy (1998) - BWII Movie Special
BW II Flash Lioconvoy (1998) - BWII Movie Special
G1 Fire Guts God Ginrai (2002) - Reissue Companion Piece
Superlink Fire Grand Convoy (2005) - Superlink (Energon) Limited Edition repaint
Robot Masters Burning Beast Convoy (2005)