BotCon 2014 Exclusive Transformers Figures Now Online

Hey guys, this is Delicon from the boards. Here is my summary of the G1 Retro panel, which focused on the original cartoons made by Sunbow.

The panelists were Jack Angel (Ultra Magnus, Astrotrain, Smokescreen, Ramjet, Breakdown and more), Hal Rayle (Shrapnel, Pipes, Slag, etc), Michael McConnohie (Tracks and Cosmos from G1 and Hotshot and Ironhide from RID) and Samantha Newark (Ariel from G1 and Jem from Jem and the Holograms.) Susan Blu and Morgan Lofting did not attend.

There was little intro and questions were taken from the start. Here are a few highlights.

As expected, each actor did a voice or two during the panel. At one point Samantha Newark said "Hi, I'm Jem...and these are not my Holograms!" Hal Rayle did his Shrapnel voice and did the famous echo effect. For reasons unexplained, Jack Angel even did some Grimlock (a character he did not originally voice.)

The actors were asked about their work on other shows. Michael McConnohie mentioned accidentally punching Roscoe Lee Browne while trying to deliver a line for the Visionaries series.

They talked about how fun the ensemble style recording sessions were. Wally Burr's unique directing style was discussed as was Frank Welker's tendency to play practical jokes with his voice. Welker loved to imitate sounds such as sliding doors and white noise and fooled Wally with those sometimes.

Casey Kasem was brought up. Jack Angel spoke of their many years they worked together on shows, including Super Friends. Hal Rayle mentioned how his wife (then around 30) told Casey she had loved him since she was a little girl to which Casey responded "Well, you're not a little girl now!"

Jack Angel said he had actually played Jem's father on Jem and the Holograms and joked about being Samantha's dad. He also told a story about how he at one point had been #4 on the list of actors with the most $100 million grossing films but had since been passed by Samuel L Jackson. Jackson had mentioned to Howard Stern that Angel and Welker (#1) weren't "real actors" to which Angel responded with challenging Jackson to get in the studio with him and Welker.

Michael McConnohie said that Cosmos had his voiced loosely based on horror icon Peter Laurie but that he was told to sound like "a very bad Peter Laurie."

The highlight of the panel was a fan who brought up original audition casting sheets (for Angel, Rayle and McConnohie) that he had purchased in an auction from Wally Burr. We learned that on the sketch sheet for Cosmos that there was a rocket instead of a flying saucer. Each actor read lines as their characters from the sheets - Jack Angel as Ramjet, McConnohie as Tracks and Rayle as Pipes and Shrapnel. It was revealed that Wally had crossed out some of the writer's dialogue and come up with his own lines.

Overall it was a very fun panel. All the speakers seemed to really enjoy themselves and interacted nicely with the fans. Other than the script reading, it was probably the lightest and fastest moving panel at BotCon 2014.

noctorro wrote:

leakin' lubricant wrote:

El Duque wrote:Wow, all in all I'm very disappointed by almost everything they revealed.

I don't collect Legends unless scale dictates the characters should be a Legends Class, so I have no interest in that Nemesis Prime, not to mention I'm kinda done with Nemesis Prime in general.

Legends Cliffjumer - Already have a Deluxe with third-party upgrades

Legends Thundercracker - again the scale issue, plus I just got iGear's new Raptor version, which is stupidly amazing.

Legends Windcharger - This one blows my mind. I already have a really good Scout Class Windcharger so that alone means I don't need this guy, but why the Hell not announce a Tailgate redeco of the previously released Scout Windcharger. We're actually going backwards here.

Legends Powerglide - This guy looks good, but I already have the Deluxe sized on from Xtransbots and it's pretty damn good. iGear also has plans to release a Powerglide in the Mini Warrrior line. Still, I might get this guy.

Legends Bombshell - Looks pretty good, but it's not going to replace my FansProject version.

Deluxe Arcee - Looks good, but really late to the party. I currently have iGear's Delicate Warrior, and really like her. Not to mention Perfect Effect has a really good Arcee, and MMC is apparently going to release a whole series of Fembots that look really nice. I may get her just because this will be Hasbro's first attempt at real G1-ish Arcee.

Deluce Chomia - Looks interesting, even though she appears to be an extensive remold of the PRID Arcee mold. Will probably get her.

Voyager Brainstorm - Look really good, but again late to the party. I already have two version of this character, FansProject and Toyworld. I'll probably get him, but if he does't surpass the ToyWorld version once I have him in-hand he'll get sold. Though I do hold out hope, after all, the Hasbro Springer replaced my FansProject Defender.

Voyager Optimus Prime - No, Hell no. Looks terrible, looks worse that the Classics Voyager that came out years ago. Neither of which hold a candle to ToyWorld Orion.

Leader Megatron - Pass. Looks okay at best, but won't scale with my Classics and not as good as ToyWorld Hegemon.

Leader Armada Megatron - This actually works, but I don't need a Generations Armada Megatron. Great for Armada fans though.

Subscription Service 3.0 - Not one of those do I want, not signing up this year.

AOE Stuff - No longer collecting movie universe stuff. In fact selling everything I've got.

Now I'm sure many of you will read this and say, "Oh, he's just one of those third-party superiority complex people." Not the case, I want Hasbro to make things I want. I want to pay Hasbro prices, rather than third-party price. But they have got to start being more proactive. Everything they showed was reactive. Case in point: They teased a Superion Generations combiner. Sorry, but I already have one from TFC, and despite it's flaws will likely be better than their version. A smarter move would have been to have teased a Generations Defensor. It would damage TFC's sales and pre-orders.

However, I do concede that these are great reveals for those not collecting third-party. For me personally though, boring.

I'm with you mate, every one of those Generations figures has a highly superior 3rd party version out or coming out, Hasbro had the chance to do something special here and blow it's 3rd party rivals out of the water, instead the took the quick and easy route, not good enough Hasbro.

Matter of opion.

I for one love the new figures and I had Delicate Warrior and Hegemon.
Do remember that these figures aren't going to cost 100 dollars a pop.

leakin' lubricant wrote:

noctorro wrote:

leakin' lubricant wrote:

El Duque wrote:Wow, all in all I'm very disappointed by almost everything they revealed.

Matter of opion.

I for one love the new figures and I had Delicate Warrior and Hegemon.
Do remember that these figures aren't going to cost 100 dollars a pop.

Not all 3rd party figures cost $100, OK the two you have mentioned do but many figures cost around the $60 mark, answer me this if you still had Hegemon would you be buying Leader class Megatron? Also it's not just that 3rd party stuff looks better than these figures, designs from the first run of Classics look better than these do and that was 7 years ago. Bottom line is most people will not buy Optimus because the either have Classics/Henkei Prime or Orion and most people will not buy Megatron because they have Henkei/United Megs or Hegemon.

SW's SilverHammer wrote:

It Is Him wrote:As a big fan of FOC Bruticus, I'm excited about more combiners. We've got 16 deluxes for 2015. Who wants to take a stab at Case layout?

X5 for Superion
X6 for Devastator
X5 for Defensor or Menasor

Or

X4 Superion limbs
X12 other scramble city type limbs
And voyagers like Silverbolt to give the torso some bulk

I'll take some of that action:
So for these past few major arcs in IDW, there've been three important combiners, Devastator, Superion, and Monstructor. Now the likely hood of the latter very slim, but possible. With that in mind, The figure count for each could Be:

5-6 Deluxes For Devastator, or alternatively, 1 Scramble city Voyager and 4 deluxes to make IDW Devastator, because you know Scrapper died. Now It's unlikely that there will be a prowl Headmaster, so the Voyager, or deluxe, constructicon would likely contain the head.

Superion would be dead simple, 5 Deluxes, or 1 scramble city Voyager and 4 deluxes.

Monstructer's pretty unlikely, though the possibility for him could be 5-6 deluxes, or one Scramble city voyager, 4 deluxes, with one of the Pretender Monsters being cut

With the all deluxe, the number of figures would be 15-16, out of 16. However if there was a return to scramble city format, there would be 12 of the 16 combiner deluxes, and 3 scramble leader voyagers.

noctorro wrote:

leakin' lubricant wrote:

noctorro wrote:

leakin' lubricant wrote:

El Duque wrote:Wow, all in all I'm very disappointed by almost everything they revealed.

Matter of opion.

I for one love the new figures and I had Delicate Warrior and Hegemon.
Do remember that these figures aren't going to cost 100 dollars a pop.

Not all 3rd party figures cost $100, OK the two you have mentioned do but many figures cost around the $60 mark, answer me this if you still had Hegemon would you be buying Leader class Megatron? Also it's not just that 3rd party stuff looks better than these figures, designs from the first run of Classics look better than these do and that was 7 years ago. Bottom line is most people will not buy Optimus because the either have Classics/Henkei Prime or Orion and most people will not buy Megatron because they have Henkei/United Megs or Hegemon.

If I still had Hegemon I'd sell him for the New Megatron. I actually had Classics Megatron, replaced him with Henkei Megatron, Replaced him with Hegemon but somehow he didn't feel right so I replaced him with United Megatron (yes, I have a hole in my hand when it comes to action figures).

I have Classics Optimus but I think he looks to Gundam-ish. I love my G2 Hero Optimus, because of his wide chest and blockyness, Very g1-ish. Also love my MP10. That's why I'm also a big fan of this new Optimus Prime.

I agree with people who don't buy the new Prime/Megz because they already have a Classics version. Hell I even have the deluxe repaints of Megatron and Optimus from that classics line.
Still I was waiting for a more G1-ish robot mode for both and these are it.

Now that I read it back, maybe I kind of have a strange taste as a TF fan. I just love the G1 cartoon and their appearances there.
And somehow I just can't seem to get to really like third party stuff, maybe because it's not official Transformers, or because of the big price tag. I only have one third party set left and that's Hercules, and he's a keeper for the figures are sturdy, great design and have that energon-cybertron vibe and fit in well with the other figures.

noctorro wrote:I agree, was very tempted with the not-Stunticons, Motormaster's awsome
At the moment, Hasbro/Takara is producing more then enough TF's that I can afford.
I also collect movie stuff, Dinobot SDCC set, moar temptation,

Cyber Bishop wrote:I for one am happy with what Hasbro produced (not interested in Nemesis, cracker, windcharger) because for instance I don't have a hegemon or a valkarie (Sorry folks, have a family and bills come before $90+ transformers) and paying $60 for a TF is not always in my budget so Ill take what Hasbro sends out because it is alot more affordable.

leakin' lubricant wrote:

noctorro wrote:

leakin' lubricant wrote:

noctorro wrote:

leakin' lubricant wrote:

El Duque wrote:Wow, all in all I'm very disappointed by almost everything they revealed.

Matter of opion.

I for one love the new figures and I had Delicate Warrior and Hegemon.
Do remember that these figures aren't going to cost 100 dollars a pop.

Not all 3rd party figures cost $100, OK the two you have mentioned do but many figures cost around the $60 mark, answer me this if you still had Hegemon would you be buying Leader class Megatron? Also it's not just that 3rd party stuff looks better than these figures, designs from the first run of Classics look better than these do and that was 7 years ago. Bottom line is most people will not buy Optimus because the either have Classics/Henkei Prime or Orion and most people will not buy Megatron because they have Henkei/United Megs or Hegemon.

If I still had Hegemon I'd sell him for the New Megatron. I actually had Classics Megatron, replaced him with Henkei Megatron, Replaced him with Hegemon but somehow he didn't feel right so I replaced him with United Megatron (yes, I have a hole in my hand when it comes to action figures).

I have Classics Optimus but I think he looks to Gundam-ish. I love my G2 Hero Optimus, because of his wide chest and blockyness, Very g1-ish. Also love my MP10. That's why I'm also a big fan of this new Optimus Prime.

I agree with people who don't buy the new Prime/Megz because they already have a Classics version. Hell I even have the deluxe repaints of Megatron and Optimus from that classics line.
Still I was waiting for a more G1-ish robot mode for both and these are it.

Now that I read it back, maybe I kind of have a strange taste as a TF fan. I just love the G1 cartoon and their appearances there.
And somehow I just can't seem to get to really like third party stuff, maybe because it's not official Transformers, or because of the big price tag. I only have one third party set left and that's Hercules, and he's a keeper for the figures are sturdy, great design and have that energon-cybertron vibe and fit in well with the other figures.

Fair enough, but I will say this you kinda doing yourself a disservice, soo much G1 inspired goodness in the 3rd party market. Much more than there is here.

Midnight_Fox wrote: Hegemon just doesn't fit what I want in my collection(too large, ugly figure, IMO).

Counterpunch wrote:Ugly? I have to assume you just don't like Megatron.

Counterpunch wrote:

Midnight_Fox wrote: Hegemon just doesn't fit what I want in my collection(too large, ugly figure, IMO).

All is fair in opinions I suppose but what exactly is ugly about a near perfect G1 interpretation of Megatron?

Complain about his transformation...fine.

Say he feels fragile...fine.

Ugly? I have to assume you just don't like Megatron.