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BOTCON  AT  PASADEN-AGAIN
(griffin's 2014 BotCon adventure)

Lanny - Pete - Brian

Showed us slides on the art process for this year's boxset cover and the toy colouring layouts.

Art process for the boxset cover image.

First drawing.

Refined into this...

Resulting in this...

Colour layouts of the toys.

Scorponok's head was originally planned to have a swivel joint, but after a few prototypes, it was just not going to look good sticking up too high.
The face-flap was also intended to work like Gen1 toys (covering up the robot face when the Nebulan was in humanoid mode), but the new sculpting of the face prevented it... and it was more important to get a good face than a gimmick (and we all hate how mainline toys have things sacrificed for gimmicks).

There were lots of issues with colours this year, from when the samples were sent, to the final products.
Also, there were a number of construction issues this year.  But you have to realise that the factory workers usually construct hundreds of thousands of the same toy parts on regular-release toys, while these figures only give them a thousand to learn and construct.

Cannonballs thighs were swapped over on all figures, making it look knock-kneed, but still transforms. To fix it you would need to remove two pins.
Scorponok has shoulder pieces swapped over (the purple bits at the back that look like they have ladders on the sides), which can be easily fixed by removing two screws on each and swapping over (it allows the shoulder pads to fold open more away from the head).
Some people also had some Clones with a bad insertion of pins in the legs... missing the hole, making the figure loose or unable to completely line up in car mode.

Rampage and Transmutate.

Early art and final version of box art.

The Membership 2-pack box concept (Transmutate box with room for Rampage) will be back next year (which allows them to sell another toy product to their growing line-up).
The two toys were just approved last week, but no slides were ready for the reveal... which they will do on the website soon.

The third subscription series...
Actionmaster Krok with Gatoraider - Generations Megatron (new head) & Micron gater.
Nacelle - Classicverse seeker looking like an early 80s catalogue (Blue Thrust with wings coloured like Starscream)... the 30th use of the mould, for the 30th Anniversary.
Serpent O.R. (name subject to approval, but unlikely to remain) - green/gold/purple JP Generations Ratbat.
ZAP - red/white/purple Generations Bumblebee/Nightbeat (looks like a new head), with Kreon GB Blackrock & Kreo station (homaging the unreleased Japanese Blocktown series).
Gen2 Starscream - redeco of Classic-verse Starscream to go with G2 Ramjet.
Tarantulas - redeco of JP Ehobby (Generations) Scrapheap, with 2 Micron beetles.
Plus a 7th bonus figure again

Again, they will try to get ahead with the Membership and Subscription orders, to offset the factory delays... so that they can have things in hand by January, to send out on schedule.

Some FunPub figures are thought up a number of years before they are used, so that they have a decent fit... but the Subscription series is now allowing them to use up ideas that were not suitable in a BotCon or Club comic themed set.

The Beast Wars comic this year (and last year?) in the Club Magazine was a testing of the waters for more Beast-themed toys in future... if feedback is positive enough.

Rules are always changing when it comes to the toys they can use, but at this time, they can't touch any mainline figures, or anything Dinobot related, or licensed cars.

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OZFORMERS - The Australian Transformers Fansite for News and Interaction (started way back in 1996 - probably the oldest Transformers fan community in the world)
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BotCon website - The official Collector Club and Convention website
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To contact me --> griffin @ otca.com.au