Ken Christiansen Shows Off Combiner Hunters Box Set Line Art

That is some gorgeous art. A shame that the attention paid to the body detail was not also paid to giving Optimus/Motormaster's torso mode secure shoulder sockets (bigger tabs or better yet mushroom pegs would make all the difference in the world. That's all it would take.)

Gods I'm hoping the CW limbs get reissued. Also Optimus Prime.

At long last, the unused headsculpts for Combiner Wars Hoist (Trailbreaker's pretool) and "Ironclad" (Rook's original pretool) have finally been shown to the public thanks to RoboCon's Facebook:



As can be seen from the above image, both heads were part of proposals for more Fun Pub figures, the above ones in particular being SG Autotrooper (the Offroad mold w/ the Hoist head) and SG X-Brawn (the Rook mold with his pretooled alternate head).

The reason I said "Ironclad" as Rook's pretool is, well, there's a bit of a story in that. See, Rook's original head pretool was actually Brawl, with the pretooled head made to resemble Brawl's noggin as, at the time, Hasbro hadn't yet made the separate Brawl mold that we ended up getting, so Rook being used for Brawl was a "just in case" backup plan if Hasbro needed it. They didn't, since Brawl did get his own mold, which left the Brawl-headed Rook pretool unneeded.

Then, when Hasbro was making plans for their Computron giftset, they brought back the Brawl-headed Rook to see use in that set as a new Technobot named "Ironclad", who was gonna replace Afterburner/Afterbreaker since he was gonna instead be made from the Legends class Groove mold (much like how Rook had replaced Groove in Hasbro's Protectobot releases). But then TakaraTomy went and made an Afterburner retooling from their Unite Warriors Deluxe class-sized Groove, so Hasbro quickly got their hands on that and scrapped their plans for both Legends class Afterburner/breaker and new character Ironclad.

Still, the Brawl-headed Rook pretool was not completely forgotten, as Fun Pub used it as the inspiration for the SG X-Brawn character who appeared in the final Shattered Glass-themed Club magazine comic storyline "Another Light". Based on the above image, SG X-Brawn was evidently one of Fun Pub's earlier proposals for BotCon 2016 along with SG Checkpoint (Offroad mold w/ the Trailbreaker head) and the SG Autotroopers also pictured above. But since that con ended up being another Beast Wars-themed con to pay tribute to both that series's 20th anniversary and BotCon's own legacy of having really taken off during the Beast Era, these proposals never came to fruition.


As for the other three proposals seen above, they are Maccadam/Alchemist Prime, Liege Maximo, and Solus Prime, but since those three aren't from Combiner Wars molds, their relevance is nil in this thread.

Just to confirm though...these are only for display, and are not being sold at the convention correct?...I mean I already have 1 CW quest I'll probably never finish, I don't need another.

JelZe GoldRabbit wrote:Sweet to finally see them, did they get any information pertaining to original intent before Ironclad?

...Like I said, the head was meant for Brawl to be made out of Rook before Hasbro changed their minds and made him his own mold. These heads were Hasbro-made like Ratchet, Reflector, Counterpunch and Nemesis Prime Toxitron.

As for displaying, I'm not expecting any these to be seen there in person. These proposals will likely just be images seen only on a screen at the Night Shining, Inc. panel, much like how all the old BotCon 2011 and TFSS 7.0 proposals were shown as images-only at last year's RoboCon. The Solus head seen there, for instance, is just Arcee's head with Cybertron Override's horns and helmet crest photoshopped onto it (the final would have been an all new sculpt had it come about).

Silverbolt is the torsobot that all other torsobots wish they could be. Simple and super effective transformation that's rock solid. Jet mode isn't particularly great though.

Emerje

Thanks for the help! I think I’m going with Silverbolt. Man, I can’t believe I didn’t get the Aerialbots when they were at retail!

Emerje wrote:Silverbolt is the torsobot that all other torsobots wish they could be. Simple and super effective transformation that's rock solid. Jet mode isn't particularly great though.

I'm a jet guy - and a Concorde guy - and seeing Silverbolt's jet mode really made me check out on him. I totally understand why he is the way he is though, a Concorde/Concorde-inspired transforming alt-mode seems impossible to pull off in toy form! MP Silverbolt would be an insane figure.

One quick and BIG warning with Silverbolt: the Superion head is prone to breaking off the hinge if not handled and moved properly. The issue was fixed with later releases of CW Scattershot, including UW Cyclonus, boxset and UW Scattershot, and other redecos and retools released around that time. Any version of Silverbolt is out of luck however

That bee makes a fantastic foot!

ZeldaTheSwordsman wrote:

Wolfman Jake wrote:

ZeldaTheSwordsman wrote:As for why I think the CW Optimus/Motormaster mold prevents knee bend in gestalt mode unless you have the legs facing tires-side forward? I found out FROM EXPERIENCE that it does so. With the legs facing the intended way, several limbs will bump against the feet and have to be forced past to bend further. The Breakdown mold doesn't have any issues, but the Dead End/Streetwise mold does, especially the Streetwise version. Which makes it feel like the toy was designed more as a standalone Optimus, because you'd think -you'd hope - that if the mold was designed first as a combiner torso they'd have been paying better attention to clearances.

Well, from my experience, I've not had any trouble with bending the knees back 90 degrees on the Optimus/Motormaster mold. How are you getting "clearance issues?" Those wheels behind the legs don't bump into anything at the combination joint, nor on the back of any combiner limb. The robot mode feet of the Voyager torso stick off to the side. That's the intended configuration. Are you putting the feet at the back or front for some reason? That's not the correct configuration. Like I said before, I just earlier today played around with my Menasor after you made your complaints and found none of what you purported to be accurate. Why don't you take some pictures of what you think the problem is?

No, I'm putting the feet on the sides where they belong:

I just have Motormaster's tires facing forward, because when I have them on the back Dead End's doors like to bump on the edge of Motormaster's foot.

Can you turn your Motormaster's legs around the right way again (tires in back) and show me the clearance issue or bumping of the doors against the legs with pictures? I've got my (Unite Warriors) copy in the intended orientation, and I'm NOT getting the problems you're saying you are with the Dead End/Wildrider mold. I can get a 90 bend with no problem whatsoever.