Botcon

The BotCon Exclusives:

Not Available in ANY store!

| 94 | 95 | 96 | 97 | 98 | 99 | 00 | 01 | 02 | 03 |04 | 05 | 06 | 07 | 08 | 09 |

For those of you who wanted pics of all the Botcon Exclusives in one handy place...well, here you are! All Botcon exclusives are recolors of existing toy molds in production at the time. These toys are NOT mass-produced; rather, they are 'convention exclusives', meaning you have to attend the convention to get them. To find out more about BotCon, visit my BotCon Page. You'll find reviews, pictures, as well as a link to the main convention page.

Anyways, here are the toys, in order of year:

BotCon 94: Breakdown

The first BotCon, and the first BotCon Exclusive: Breakdown. A recoloring of the 1986 Breakdown from the Menasaur Gestault. 1994 was the year they were re-releasing a LOT of the Gen1 toys as Gen2, and Breakdown was no exception:

G1 Breakdown vs G2 Breakdown

It is interesting to note that while they released Breakdown, none of the other Stunticons were re-released(more accurately, mass-released. They made it pretty far in the process). One can only wonder why.

Patent for Breakdown

BotCon 95: Nightracer

The Second Coming of Botcon, this one featured a re-release of a Gen2 Gobot, and the first recognized appearance of a female-character toy(there is some speculation about Camshaft receiving that honor in europe, but no solid evidence :-). Nightracer was a recolor of the Bumblebee-Gobot mold:

Nightracer Bumblebee

It should be noted that there are some Nightracer toys out there without the hand-painted blue racing stripes and the computer-printout Decepticon symbols. The decorated ones are the "official," Raksha-approved BotCon toys--the others are leftover stock that Hasbro distributed elsewhere. Click here to find out where the secret 'unofficial' stock can be found!

BotCon 96: Onyx Primal

1996 brought us a recolor of the first BeastWars toy. The Bat from the Megatron/Primal 2-pk was recolored and re-released as the evil Onyx Primal.

Battle of the Bats

(see also: japanese recolor ConvoBat)

BotCon 97: Fractyl and Packrat

Botcon 97 brought us recolors from the first-wave of beastwars toys. Packrat was a recolor of Rattrap, while Fractyl was a recolor of Terrasaur:

RatTrap vs PackRat Fractyl/Terrasaur/Lazerbeak

BotCon 98: Antagony and Vicegrip

Botcon 98 Brought us TWO recolored toys; Inferno was recolored into Antagony, ANOTHER female toy (by now, these are becoming common) while Powerpinch was recolored into Vicegrip. The animals are an ant and an earwig bug, respectively.

Vicegrip vs Powerpinch Antagony vs Inferno

BotCon 99:Sandstorm and Windrazor

Sandstorm was a recolor of Scorponok from the second-wave of beastwars toys, while Windrazor was a recolor of Silverbolt from the Fuzors line:

Silverbolt vs Windrazor Scorponok vs Sandstorm

(see also: list one; Japanese-exclusive Doublepunch and Bearbarian)

BotCon 2000: Shokaract and ApeLinQ

Shokaract was a recolor of the Beastwars Transmetal Rampage mold, while ApeLinQ is a recolor of the Beastwars Transmetal Optimus Primal mold:

Monkeys Crabs

BotCon 2001: Arcee and Tigatron

Finally, an Arcee toy! A pink version of the tm2ba mold, but who cares? :-) Changes also include a switch on the rotating faction symbol(autobot replaces predacon). Also, to quote Hellbunny: "Since this is the preregistrant version, it comes with a voice chip. The voice chip says, "Don't underestimate me. I'm more than just a pretty face. Arcee, MAXIMIZE!" It's done by the real Arcee voice actress, Susan Blue. However... it's a really, really stupid gimmick. It's not on the toy anywhere. The chip is an inch and a half white disk that is light sensitive and hides in the box. It's this big circular thing that looks something like those little plastic things that store halloween facial scar make-up. And it's light activated. What does that mean? It means unless you hide it somewhere, the damn thing goes off essentially non-stop."

The x-9 Ravage mold from japan has been recolored, and released as Tigatron. The x-9 mold itself is a modified transmetal2 Cheetor mold. Still a nice toy.

Arcee vs BlackArachnia x-9 Ravage vs Tigatron

BotCon 2002: Glyph, TapOut, Cyclonus, and Catscan

Primus, did we get a pile of toys this year. Glyph and TapOut are recolors of Bumblebee and Cliffjumper, respectively(more specifically, recolors of the Fun4all keychain versions...for more information on minibot mold variants, click here). We also got a recolor of Ultra-Jetstorm called Cyclonus, and a recolor of (Night-slash)Cheetor called Catscan.

BB and CJ keychains Glyph and TapOut keychains

Jetstorm vs Cyclonus Cheetor vs Catscan

(see also: euro-exclusive Rook)

BotCon/OTFCC 2003: Sunstreaker, Sideswipe, and the Girls

Now called OTFCC instead of Botcon for the 2003 convention. If you don't already know the reasons why, then it probably doesn't matter to you :-)

As for toys...RID recolors this year, specifically the molds of two out of 3 car-brothers. Prowl was retooled and recolored, offered both in red(Sideswipe) and in yellow(Sunstreaker, the hotel-exclusive). In addition, Sideburn was remolded (female heads, no joke) and turned into a Viper 2-pk of females called Roulette and Shadowstriker. It is interesting to note that the SS/SS mold modification has carried beyond OTFCC, and into the mass retail Universe line. They used the otfcc molding, and reattached the headlights for Universe Prowl and Inferno. Neat. This is the first time I can recall this happening. Yea, there were also some pvcs; Sunstorm, and a troop builder 6-pk, but as those aren't toys, I won't mention them ;-) Oh wait, yes I will...

Prowl vs Sunstreaker and Sideswipe Sideburn vs the Gals 3 Sideburns vs the Gals

A super-rare exclusive available only to Autocon members attending OTFCC this year: A four-pack of ShuttleChodes(a set of 4 clear decoys in a movie shuttlecraft; commemorating the 17th anniversary of the Death of Brawn) and a Sunstorm Cybertonain Tetrajet PVC: pic. For more information about Autocon Convention Exclusives, click here

Botcon 2004; and OTFCC 2004: Sentinel Maximus and MegaZarek

For otfcc, the toys were: Armada Galvarton, recolored, electronics gutted, now called Megazarek; and Armada Overload recolored (and remolded; both heads) now called Sentinel Maximus. Sentinel was not available at the convention; in-fact, Hasbro pulled the convention lisence from Glen, filed a lawsuit against 3H, and finally got the toys back from him, then repackaged them and mailed them to all of us directly. More... A third toy, the Last Autobot(recolor/remold of Rid Prime) was cancelled completely. The one upshot was a set of Hasbro -exclusive spears made available to attendees if they filled out a survey(the survey lead to a conference call to selected attendees, who got a free Prime for participating).

MegaZarek Sentinel Maximus Hasbro Energon spears

For Botcon, We got an actionmaster G2 Breakdown, a nice tie-in to the first convention (only 204 made, etc) pic

The super-rare Autocon exclusives this year were a micromaster Wheelie, and a pvc Last Autochode (made to make fun of the failed Last Autobot toy we didn't get at otfcc). For more information about Autocon Convention Exclusives, click here

Convention 2005

Mastercollector has taken the Hasbro lisence from Glen, and purchased the Botcon name from the Hartmans. Sigh.

For the MasterCollector 2005 TF convention (I'm not ready to call it Botcon yet), we got way-too-many figures. I mean seriously, WAY TOO MANY FIGURES. There was a boxed set and two loose sets, as well as an attendee-only toy, consisting of Deathsaurus (a remold and recolor of the RID Megatron/Galvatron toy), Fallback(supposed to be Outback, a recolor of the Energon Strongarm jeep), Ironhide and Ratchet (a recolor and remold of the Energon Towline van), Chromia , Flareup, and Flamewar (a recolor and remold of Energon Arcee), Dirge and Buzzclaw and Virulent Clone (recolors of the Beastwars Buzzclaw mold), and Richochet (a recolor of the Universe Windsheer jet, which was a recolor and slight remold of the G2 cyberjets Jetfire and Hooligan). So to review: Deathy has a new head, Chromia/Flareup/Flamewar have a different head, and Ironhide/Ratchet have a different head (they also used the later Towline mold on that one). Everyone else is a recolor. Ratchet/FlareUp were a seperate purchase, and the Virulent Clone 2pk was a seperate purchase. Flamewar was a seperate toy given to pre-registrants. Everyone else was in a boxed set.

(pics in-process)

A super-rare Autocon-exclusive item, available only to members of Autocon who attended one of the three smaller conventions: A redeco version of one of the three Energon Sabre team members, called the Stormsword. For more information about Autocon Convention Exclusives, click here

McBotcon 2006

Eh, I don't really remember. Probably sucked.

The Autocon 2006 net exclusive was Pinchbottom.

McBotcon 2007

Well, this was memorable ;-) Classics recolors, filling out the ones we didn't get in that line. Jetfire was recolored into Dreadwing, Starscream into Thundercracker, Ramjet into Thrust/Dirge(with a wing remold, no less) and Bumblebee into Bugbite(eh, whatever). The purchase sets included Springer and Huffer (recolors of Cybertron Armorhide and Hotshot) and Alphatrion(recolor/head remold of cybertron Vectorprime).

(pics in-process)

Jetfire vs Dreadwing | Bumblebee vs Bugbite | Hotshot, Armorhide, and VectorPrime vs Springer, Huffer, and Alphitrion | Starscream vs Thundercracker | Ramjet vs Dirge and Thrust

The Autocon 2007 net exclusive was Nachos BelGrande.

McBotcon 2008

This is where we'll probably get some of the classics molds we heard about for last years set, but never saw. The rest in-process, I imagine.

Botcon 2009

Thanks for taking the time to read this far :-) After looking at the page, some of you may be asking, "Why are the toys all recolors of currently (at the time)-produced toys? Why not something else? Why not a Mirage?"

We are told that the cost involved to produce an out-of-production toy, or an entirely new toy, are too-much. The thought is that either the old mold will have to be extensively retooled, or a new mold created for an old toy.

I tend to disagree with the philosopy. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying it wouldn't be expensive...I'm sure it would...just charge more, and give the folks what they want. After all, we're already paying upwards of 50 bucks or more for a recolored 12$ toy. But that's just me :-) Perhaps now that the originals are being reissued in Japan, that particular set of arguments will disappear and we'll see one of them turn up as an exclusive in the future.(Note: as of BC'02, we already are. Granted, it's the FFA version of BB and CJ, but we're moving in the right direction. I'll bet we get what we want VERY soon...anmd I was right :-) We have remolded heads on the Sideburn mold for 2003. See? It's all coming together...) Heck, if the ko companies can reissue Mirage, Sunstreaker, and Wheeljack... it's just a matter of time.

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