TF Club (Fun Pub) answers fans' questions regarding "Dawn of the Predacus" BotCon 2016 set

The decision of show versus toys... well the Tripredacus toys already exist.

1984forever wrote:Fun pub has to know that they're going to lose money on this set.

ZeroWolf wrote:I would be surprised if they lost more money then usual, I think there is more people who like this then there is vocally against it. Of course this is just conjecture on my part.

SG Roadbuster wrote:i know this is the beast wars 20th anniversary, but its also RID/Car Robots 15th anniversary. and those characters would have been much better suited to the combiner wars molds. gimmie sec and I can brainstorm up something.......

boxset-"Ruination Awakens"
Mega Octane-from Onlsaught
Rotor-from Alpha bravo
Movor-From Skydive (new head)
Armorhide-from Brawl (use toy colours, they look more interesting)
Rollbar-from Swindle, or Offroad if you want him to look different from Hound
Storm Jet from Cyclonus (new bot mode and combiner heads combiner head based on Grand Mal Megatron in homage to the original Storm Jet's Vehicon roots)

souvenir set 1
Fire Convoy/Optimus Prime from Hot Spot (new combiner head)
Spychanger Ironhide from Offroad
Spychanger Mirage from Drag Strip (new head)

souvenir set 2
REV from Breakdown (new head)
WARS from Streetwise

souvenir set 3
Hotshot from Deadend
Crosswise from Wheeljack


attendee figure
Side Swipe from Deadend (new head)

custom class
Daytonus from Wheeljack

i literally came up with that in five minutes. creating 3 full combiners between the boxset and souvenirs using the 2014 format. and quite honestly, the ruination and spychanger toys from the original rid line were the weakest of the line on account of being g1 toys.

welcometothedarksyde wrote:

SG Roadbuster wrote:i know this is the beast wars 20th anniversary, but its also RID/Car Robots 15th anniversary. and those characters would have been much better suited to the combiner wars molds. gimmie sec and I can brainstorm up something.......

boxset-"Ruination Awakens"
Mega Octane-from Onlsaught
Rotor-from Alpha bravo
Movor-From Skydive (new head)
Armorhide-from Brawl (use toy colours, they look more interesting)
Rollbar-from Swindle, or Offroad if you want him to look different from Hound
Storm Jet from Cyclonus (new bot mode and combiner heads combiner head based on Grand Mal Megatron in homage to the original Storm Jet's Vehicon roots)

souvenir set 1
Fire Convoy/Optimus Prime from Hot Spot (new combiner head)
Spychanger Ironhide from Offroad
Spychanger Mirage from Drag Strip (new head)

souvenir set 2
REV from Breakdown (new head)
WARS from Streetwise

souvenir set 3
Hotshot from Deadend
Crosswise from Wheeljack


attendee figure
Side Swipe from Deadend (new head)

custom class
Daytonus from Wheeljack

i literally came up with that in five minutes. creating 3 full combiners between the boxset and souvenirs using the 2014 format. and quite honestly, the ruination and spychanger toys from the original rid line were the weakest of the line on account of being g1 toys.

That's actually a really good idea, those molds fit well. My one critique is that the lack of Beast Molds in CW makes an RID homage not totally possible. That being said I don't think anyone would care.
Also this is not very timely, but does anyone else wish they ended up making a Towline? from the Electro mold a few years ago? Or even a Hubcap? He was the only unique character to Machine Wars after all.

SG Roadbuster wrote:i know this is the beast wars 20th anniversary, but its also RID/Car Robots 15th anniversary. and those characters would have been much better suited to the combiner wars molds. gimmie sec and I can brainstorm up something.......

boxset-"Ruination Awakens"
Mega Octane-from Onlsaught
Rotor-from Alpha bravo
Movor-From Skydive (new head)
Armorhide-from Brawl (use toy colours, they look more interesting)
Rollbar-from Swindle, or Offroad if you want him to look different from Hound
Storm Jet from Cyclonus (new bot mode and combiner heads combiner head based on Grand Mal Megatron in homage to the original Storm Jet's Vehicon roots)

souvenir set 1
Fire Convoy/Optimus Prime from Hot Spot (new combiner head)
Spychanger Ironhide from Offroad
Spychanger Mirage from Drag Strip (new head)

souvenir set 2
REV from Breakdown (new head)
WARS from Streetwise

souvenir set 3
Hotshot from Deadend
Crosswise from Wheeljack


attendee figure
Side Swipe from Deadend (new head)

custom class
Daytonus from Wheeljack

i literally came up with that in five minutes. creating 3 full combiners between the boxset and souvenirs using the 2014 format. and quite honestly, the ruination and spychanger toys from the original rid line were the weakest of the line on account of being g1 toys.

SG Roadbuster wrote:i know this is the beast wars 20th anniversary, but its also RID/Car Robots 15th anniversary.

Railbomb wrote:I'm not entirely upset about this set. It's in no way horrible but I would have much rather had more figures from the Thrilling 30 molds. They could have used Centuritron for Tripredacus,

Railbomb wrote:Blacharachnia from Chromia, Silverbolt from BH Grimwing or Springer/Sandstorm,

Railbomb wrote:Transmutate from Whirl, Airrazor from Windblade,

1984forever wrote:Fun pub has to know that they're going to lose money on this set.

MisterNewUzer wrote:This is a crock of bull, two toys in this box set already prove that, not to mention countless other toys from previous Botcons:

Transmetal Tarantulas and Ravage/Jaguar XJ9 already exist, we should give them completely garish and awful paintjobs because they have toys that exist.

Hey, Scorponok already has an existing G1 toy, let's just paint him purple!

Hey, Clench has an existing toy, let's make him resemble Optimus Prime instead!

This 2006 Games of Deception set is gonna be the bee's knees! But Dirge and Thrust already have toys, so let's not bother remolding them and just make them straight repaints of the Starscream mold, they'll love that!




That is just lazy and uninformed. I had hope in a great set before, now I'm putting my money towards something more thought out.

Sabrblade wrote:

Hellscream9999 wrote:

Ultra Markus wrote:so what is the combiner torso mode going to look like?

Like Superion, only in red and grey

With some of Tarantulas's colors integrated to make all five components look good together.

Ultra Markus wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:

Hellscream9999 wrote:

Ultra Markus wrote:so what is the combiner torso mode going to look like?

Like Superion, only in red and grey

With some of Tarantulas's colors integrated to make all five components look good together.

i was hoping for a new head sculpt

Hellscream9999 wrote:I honestly think that all the dislike towards this is unjust for the most part, due to frustration stemming from two sources.

1) CW mold fatigue; say what you will, but, I think that deep down, we're all tired of seeing these same d@mn molds already - so seeing them again is only exacerbating the situation. Sure nosecone brawl w/ a drill is new (and only seeing one release) and scattershot is 'new', but considering that they are taking up at least 2 waves of next year and the tfcc set, I think I can safely say that everyone is more than a little tired of hasbro pushing these on us and funpub.

2) Hasbro ignoring the BW anniversary, thus making it someone else's issue to deal with. A bunch of d!ck moves out of hasbro lately. Not releasing extra limbs for all of our spare torso's we bought, and now, ignoring the anniversary of a beloved series that salvaged the brand just so they could cram more gimmick-laden G1 crap down our throats

mirageandjazz1197 wrote:

MisterNewUzer wrote:This is a crock of bull, two toys in this box set already prove that, not to mention countless other toys from previous Botcons:

Transmetal Tarantulas and Ravage/Jaguar XJ9 already exist, we should give them completely garish and awful paintjobs because they have toys that exist.

Hey, Scorponok already has an existing G1 toy, let's just paint him purple!

Hey, Clench has an existing toy, let's make him resemble Optimus Prime instead!

This 2006 Games of Deception set is gonna be the bee's knees! But Dirge and Thrust already have toys, so let's not bother remolding them and just make them straight repaints of the Starscream mold, they'll love that!




That is just lazy and uninformed. I had hope in a great set before, now I'm putting my money towards something more thought out.

The hell are you rambling on about?


What you said does not make sense.





1: They have toys yes but Agent Ravage himself does not have a modern mold Alternators does not fit with classics.




2: That Scorponok did not have a modern articulated counterpart like Metroplex dpes and that mold did not have a G1 repaint already and they gave it a headmaster function.



3: How the hell does Clench look like Optimus Prime? He really doesn't.




4: Neither Dirge or Thrust were straight redecos of Starscream and at the time they did not have the classics update and Thrust does have remolding.

mirageandjazz1197 wrote:

1984forever wrote:Fun pub has to know that they're going to lose money on this set.

You say this like your actually right about anything.


You'r not a Beast Wars fan (or well fan a fan of anything) you kinda have no place to say what is going to happen when it comes to sells.

MisterNewUzer wrote:He essentially stated that because they have existing toys in the existing colors already, they needed to do something different. which is nonsense, obviously, because all of the toys I mentioned have existing toys and got updated figures via Botcon with mostly accurate colors.

MisterNewUzer wrote:You need to learn what sarcasm is, and practice your reading comprehension, friend.

Hellscream9999 wrote:

MisterNewUzer wrote:You need to learn what sarcasm is, and practice your reading comprehension, friend.

Sorry this is the internet, sarcasm is mostly in knowing a persons personality, and vocal inflection - neither of which can be conveyed through a post on the internet. Best thing you could do is italicize the sarcasm, as that is the nearest thing to a 'rule' on internet sarcasm as you can get.

Sabrblade wrote:

Hellscream9999 wrote:

MisterNewUzer wrote:You need to learn what sarcasm is, and practice your reading comprehension, friend.

Sorry this is the internet, sarcasm is mostly in knowing a persons personality, and vocal inflection - neither of which can be conveyed through a post on the internet. Best thing you could do is italicize the sarcasm, as that is the nearest thing to a 'rule' on internet sarcasm as you can get.

Use of emoticons likewise helps in convey sarcasm. (NOTE: this is not a sarcastic message)

Also sometimes helps to finish a sentence with this.[/sarcasm] (NOTE: this is not sarcastic either)

megatronus wrote:I take no issue with the Tri-Predacus Council members. At this point, I think perhaps FunPub should have considered a Silverbolt-into-Thunderwing redeco and Hot Spot-into-Seaclamp redeco, but I'm more or less OK with the 3 Council members as red and grey representations of the show model.

Ravage and Tarantulus? Still misfires. I'm not sure I'm happy about hearing that Tarantulus' colors will be pulled into the combined mode. Would have been much happier with a black leg to match Ravage. (Still, I would have preferred something entirely different for Ravage.)

megatronus wrote:I take no issue with the Tri-Predacus Council members. At this point, I think perhaps FunPub should have considered a Silverbolt-into-Thunderwing redeco and Hot Spot-into-Seaclamp redeco, but I'm more or less OK with the 3 Council members as red and grey representations of the show model.

Ravage and Tarantulus? Still misfires. I'm not sure I'm happy about hearing that Tarantulus' colors will be pulled into the combined mode. Would have been much happier with a black leg to match Ravage. (Still, I would have preferred something entirely different for Ravage.)

megatronus wrote:At this point, I think perhaps FunPub should have considered a Silverbolt-into-Thunderwing redeco and Hot Spot-into-Seaclamp redeco,

megatronus wrote:Ravage and Tarantulus? Still misfires. I'm not sure I'm happy about hearing that Tarantulus' colors will be pulled into the combined mode. Would have been much happier with a black leg to match Ravage. (Still, I would have preferred something entirely different for Ravage.)

D-Maximus_Prime wrote:

megatronus wrote:Ravage and Tarantulus? Still misfires. I'm not sure I'm happy about hearing that Tarantulus' colors will be pulled into the combined mode. Would have been much happier with a black leg to match Ravage. (Still, I would have preferred something entirely different for Ravage.)

It still kinda works with the main black on Tarantulas and the black of Ravage, so who knows, maybe when the combined mode image is released many will change their minds

Sabrblade wrote:

megatronus wrote:At this point, I think perhaps FunPub should have considered a Silverbolt-into-Thunderwing redeco and Hot Spot-into-Seaclamp redeco,

I agree with this, but would prefer the Cyclonus version of the mold for the Thunderwing idea, since Cyclonus's altmode is more of a space jet than Silverbolt's is, which would fit Thunderwing more.

Sabrblade wrote:

megatronus wrote:Ravage and Tarantulus? Still misfires. I'm not sure I'm happy about hearing that Tarantulus' colors will be pulled into the combined mode. Would have been much happier with a black leg to match Ravage. (Still, I would have preferred something entirely different for Ravage.)

I too wish Ravage had been another mold, but mostly because the Breakdown mold doesn't look good as Ravage even though it offers the most room to accomodate Ravage's head while allowing said head to both look good and be properly-sized. It's those chunky lower legs that kill the look.

And I've said my piece about how I wish Tarantulas had been someone else, as he's made redundant by the TFSS figure more blocky than I'd like a Tarantulas toy to be.

That said, I get that they were sticking to onscreen characters as the two of them are notable and memorable in their own right compared to instead using two non-show characters who aren't nearly as well-liked. After all, Ravage is a super popular G1 character and Tarantulas is one of the most popular BW characters. In spite of the shortcomings of these two toys, that they represent characters people already love has a sort of appeal on its own. I could see that Tarantulas being a hot item at retail were it part of the main Combiner Wars line instead of a BotCon exclusive, even if its orange feet look really goofy.

megatronus wrote:Besides, it's been the Club's prerogative to throw out obscure characters in the past (Ferak, anyone?), so even more so, when the end goal is a badass combiner, I would expect to see obscure limb choices that round out the look of that combiner, versus the TFSS 4.0 choices where the focus is the individual bots, with a neat combiner aspect that homages something more obscure.

Sabrblade wrote:

megatronus wrote:Besides, it's been the Club's prerogative to throw out obscure characters in the past (Ferak, anyone?), so even more so, when the end goal is a badass combiner, I would expect to see obscure limb choices that round out the look of that combiner, versus the TFSS 4.0 choices where the focus is the individual bots, with a neat combiner aspect that homages something more obscure.

I think the Tripredacus Council itself fills the Club's quota of obscure characters fairly well, even outnumbering the more known and more popular Ravage and Tarantulas 3 to 2.

megatronus wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:

megatronus wrote:Besides, it's been the Club's prerogative to throw out obscure characters in the past (Ferak, anyone?), so even more so, when the end goal is a badass combiner, I would expect to see obscure limb choices that round out the look of that combiner, versus the TFSS 4.0 choices where the focus is the individual bots, with a neat combiner aspect that homages something more obscure.

I think the Tripredacus Council itself fills the Club's quota of obscure characters fairly well, even outnumbering the more known and more popular Ravage and Tarantulas 3 to 2.

Ravage, sure, but BW Ravage? Pretty obscure.

Plus, I would challenge the obscurity of the Tri-Predacus Council. Between the toys and the show, I think they are fairly well known to BW fans.

Hellscream9999 wrote:

megatronus wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:

megatronus wrote:Besides, it's been the Club's prerogative to throw out obscure characters in the past (Ferak, anyone?), so even more so, when the end goal is a badass combiner, I would expect to see obscure limb choices that round out the look of that combiner, versus the TFSS 4.0 choices where the focus is the individual bots, with a neat combiner aspect that homages something more obscure.

I think the Tripredacus Council itself fills the Club's quota of obscure characters fairly well, even outnumbering the more known and more popular Ravage and Tarantulas 3 to 2.

Ravage, sure, but BW Ravage? Pretty obscure.

Plus, I would challenge the obscurity of the Tri-Predacus Council. Between the toys and the show, I think they are fairly well known to BW fans.

The tri-predacus council wasn't obscure, they played an important part of the best season finale of all of tf lore, and bw ravage is G1 ravage, and I'm sure plenty of people remember that quite well as a cool throw-back to G1, that turned into something so much more. I don't why these guys have to be 'obscure', they made them to celebrate the anniversary, you don't need to look into it any further

megatronus wrote:When I say BW Ravage is obscure, it's only in relation to some of the better known things, such as the Tri-Predacus Council, which came up constantly and was mentioned beyond the 2 episodes Ravage appeared in. All of this is relative, not objective.

Sabrblade wrote:The Tripredacus Council are about as obscure as Devcon, probably even moreso, as they were only in a single episode of the whole show, and only in just one scene (I guess Transmutate would be more on Devcon's level of obscurity, having had an entire episode to itself). Don't forget that most of us who remember these three are uber-fans, higher up of nerd scale than the average fan. And because the Beast Wars had so few characters compared to most TF cartoons, even the most minimal roles tend to be listed among the main cast for the sake of bumping up the character roster.

But, to a lot of fans, these three are nobodies. As popular as Beast Wars is, there's still a large portion of the fandom that, either willfully or apathetically, ignores it, preferring to focus on other series like G1, the movies, Prime, or the IDW comics. To these fans, who aren't as versed in the BW lore, the Council is virtually a nonentity, as these fans have no connection or

SW's SilverHammer wrote:

Sabrblade wrote:The Tripredacus Council are about as obscure as Devcon, probably even moreso, as they were only in a single episode of the whole show, and only in just one scene (I guess Transmutate would be more on Devcon's level of obscurity, having had an entire episode to itself). Don't forget that most of us who remember these three are uber-fans, higher up of nerd scale than the average fan. And because the Beast Wars had so few characters compared to most TF cartoons, even the most minimal roles tend to be listed among the main cast for the sake of bumping up the character roster.

But, to a lot of fans, these three are nobodies. As popular as Beast Wars is, there's still a large portion of the fandom that, either willfully or apathetically, ignores it, preferring to focus on other series like G1, the movies, Prime, or the IDW comics. To these fans, who aren't as versed in the BW lore, the Council is virtually a nonentity, as these fans have no connection or

Wow you are either being really obtuse about beast wars, or are trying to downplay it's notoriety. I've talked to people who watched beast wars as a kid, and never had any other interaction with transformers, and they remember the tripredacus council and ravages involvement in the beast wars. Why? Because the agenda parts one through three are some of the most memorable, tightly written episodes of the 52 episode run. The tripredecus council, ravage, and even transmutate are nowhere near devcon levels of obscure. Here's why. Devcon appeared in one episode of the 98 episode of the sunbow cartoon. The sunbow cartoon, wasn't as well written as the beast wars, and the shows continuity was an absolute ****. Whenever a new character was introduced in Sunbow cartoon, they really had no character development or importance. In Beast wars, the writers tried to give new characters, even if they appeared in one episode, character development or influence over the plot and characters.

william-james88 wrote:I have no clue who devcon is but i know the tripedicus council quite well. Tripedicus and Magnaboss were really important toys to me since they were opposing beast combiners and i found it awesome that the components of tripedicus actually appeared in the show.

Hellscream9999 wrote:

william-james88 wrote:I have no clue who devcon is but i know the tripedicus council quite well. Tripedicus and Magnaboss were really important toys to me since they were opposing beast combiners and i found it awesome that the components of tripedicus actually appeared in the show.

Devcon's that one guy who showed up, didn't do anything memorable, then left - never to be seen again, until botcon a couple years ago

ZeroWolf wrote:Can't we all agree however that it's a shame that Magnaboss isn't part of this set as he got nothing from the cartoon (western one at least)

TF_JW wrote:As far as how the Beast Wars Combiner Wars came about, I can't get too much into that. However I will say that Hasbro were very much excited by the concept of Fun Pub using current molds and branding to make the toy line and exclusives more cohesive.

Lucky Logician wrote:

ZeroWolf wrote:Can't we all agree however that it's a shame that Magnaboss isn't part of this set as he got nothing from the cartoon (western one at least)

TF_JW wrote:As far as how the Beast Wars Combiner Wars came about, I can't get too much into that. However I will say that Hasbro were very much excited by the concept of Fun Pub using current molds and branding to make the toy line and exclusives more cohesive.

I've got a hunch that Magnaboss will probably be in the souvenir sets. The box set is Combiner Wars Dawn of the Predacus. It only makes sense to include the other figures in with that theme. Heck, other than the Armada Starscream mold that FubPub is using for next year, every other announced figure for 2016 is a CW figure. I'd be surprised if the souvenirs figures are anything but Combiner Wars figures.

As a side-note, FunPub, PLEASE SURPRISE ME. I need that Oilmaster repainted as Optimus Prime / Primal. It is a munky and a trukk. There is absolutely nothing better than that.
THIS NEEDS TO BE MADE!

ZeroWolf wrote:A g2 combiner? Given what molds we have access to and what autobots were out during g2, I guess one of the other figures would be drawn from the stunticon molds...and alpha bravo as rotorstorm. Oh wait! They could do cw prime as thunderclash...but then that just seems a bit of a cop out given the theme

Originally Posted by Cal Shumiatcher
Wow - this really came out of the blue. And you’ve picked one of my favourite scenes from the point of view of innovation on a limited budget. One of the great things about Beast Wars was the creative freedom afforded to directors on the show. And of course the amazing scripts made working on this show so rewarding.

This scene was a typical production challenge and I’m very proud of the results.

Here’s what I was given:

1) the design of a massive spaceship - exterior only. Because this was the only scene that ever takes place within the ship, no interior set was ever designed.
2) Three rough character models that had virtually no moving parts.
3) a three page dialogue scene that was important but virtually all exposition. no action.

Hmmm. How to keep the audience awake? As I recall, the Tripredacus Council were essentially putting a hit out on one of our good guys. So I decided to play them like film noir gangsters, sitting in a smoke filled room under a swinging ‘china hat’ lamp. The swinging lamp was supposed to be the only light source in the room and there was to be virtually no ambient light. I was looking for the super high contrast, film noir look - partially because I love the look and partly because there was no set! So I decided that we’d play the interior of the spaceship like a huge cavernous empty space - almost a bottomless pit with the council members floating in space.

So we set it up, and everything was great, except you couldn’t see the character’s faces. The overhead light was casting such hard shadows. So the supervising animator, Eric Reynolds - (who has gone on to supervise animation on movies like Avatar, The Hobbit and The Hunger Games), suggested the Council kind of ‘sign in’ when they arrived at the table by touching a palm reading pad that would illuminate when their identity was confirmed. The glowing pad provided a soft red light on the bodies. Now you have to remember that these were very rudimentary models that were quickly finished and textured. So I can only imagine that some parts of the characters were more reflective than others. We didn’t really plan it, but it looked really cool when parts of them glowed with red, so we went with it. Sorry, that’s pretty much all there is to it.

I love how the scene ends - one character grabs the lamp to stop it swinging and delivers a line I still remember well - “Terminate, with extreme prejudice”. It was so camp, and so cool all at once.

Thanks for your enquiry - and for picking a scene that I remember so well.

RodimusRex wrote:It was a Twitter survey. They asked which G2 combiner people would like and it was basically a "G2 Defensor or someone else? Tell us what Autobot combiner you'd like" poll.

william-james88 wrote:I dont know what the technical term for it is, but there is a notion that once a piece of art is sent out to the public, what the public makes of it can become as credible an interpretation as the author's. For example, Tommy Wiseau thought the Room was a masterpiece of drama and the audiences thought it was a joke. And it was so overwhelming that he changed his outlook of the film from a marketing standpoint from then on. Anyways, its the long way to say that even though what I write below confirms that the director of the specific Beast Wars scene intended the Tripedicus council to be just grey, the interpretation of Botcon is just as valid, given how the scene actually plays out.

TFW user Verno wrote to Cal Shumiatcher, the director of the Beast Wars Episode the scene comes from (The Agenda Part 1) and he gave a detailed account of his intentions with the light sources and what they meant in terms of the colour of the actual characters:

Originally Posted by Cal Shumiatcher
Wow - this really came out of the blue. And you’ve picked one of my favourite scenes from the point of view of innovation on a limited budget. One of the great things about Beast Wars was the creative freedom afforded to directors on the show. And of course the amazing scripts made working on this show so rewarding.

This scene was a typical production challenge and I’m very proud of the results.

Here’s what I was given:

1) the design of a massive spaceship - exterior only. Because this was the only scene that ever takes place within the ship, no interior set was ever designed.
2) Three rough character models that had virtually no moving parts.
3) a three page dialogue scene that was important but virtually all exposition. no action.

Hmmm. How to keep the audience awake? As I recall, the Tripredacus Council were essentially putting a hit out on one of our good guys. So I decided to play them like film noir gangsters, sitting in a smoke filled room under a swinging ‘china hat’ lamp. The swinging lamp was supposed to be the only light source in the room and there was to be virtually no ambient light. I was looking for the super high contrast, film noir look - partially because I love the look and partly because there was no set! So I decided that we’d play the interior of the spaceship like a huge cavernous empty space - almost a bottomless pit with the council members floating in space.

So we set it up, and everything was great, except you couldn’t see the character’s faces. The overhead light was casting such hard shadows. So the supervising animator, Eric Reynolds - (who has gone on to supervise animation on movies like Avatar, The Hobbit and The Hunger Games), suggested the Council kind of ‘sign in’ when they arrived at the table by touching a palm reading pad that would illuminate when their identity was confirmed. The glowing pad provided a soft red light on the bodies. Now you have to remember that these were very rudimentary models that were quickly finished and textured. So I can only imagine that some parts of the characters were more reflective than others. We didn’t really plan it, but it looked really cool when parts of them glowed with red, so we went with it. Sorry, that’s pretty much all there is to it.

I love how the scene ends - one character grabs the lamp to stop it swinging and delivers a line I still remember well - “Terminate, with extreme prejudice”. It was so camp, and so cool all at once.

Thanks for your enquiry - and for picking a scene that I remember so well.