I am still mad that they never used any of the Combiner Wars molds to make a modern Nexus Prime, did no one think to do that. This was literally his toyline with his artifact, the Enigma of Combination, and they make this random Beast Wars set, what?

Botcon is honestly one of the best things about the toys,the repaints and the retools were amazing and unique,the first botcon that I've ever got is cannonball,i'm glad to see bot con get attention now,about bot con cannonball,he's a great figure especially the colors,i recommend this figure to everyone

That Machine Wars set really bugs me, because MW was originally only 12 toys, and they could very easily have remade all of them but they didn't. They had even already set the precedent for what mold to use for MW Optimus.

Shattered glass optimus is definitely a grail, the purple, black, worn details and cracks on him make him look so broken and menacing, such a phenomenal repaint

In defence of 2014’s Pirates vs Knights set: a) it was meant to celebrate 30 years of Transformers and 20 years of Botcon. b) Ferak and Tornado were included due to their cameo in Last Stand of the Wreckers.

ok so the 2016 set, the Predacus boxset was a wet fart in a crowded bus, but souvenir Megatron, made from the RID Megatron mold in tm2 colours was an absolute stunner. and made a nice bookened to the funpub era of botcon. that began with the rid mold as deathsaurus and ending with the same mold as megatron.

Metalhawk should’ve just been that same mold in the regular gold. He’s the one Pretender character where the inner robot is more memorable than the shell.

I very much expected that creating a figure based on an unreleased Pretender, at least when it includes a new Pretender Shell for said character, would appeal to collectors. Clearly it didn't, but I can see why Fun Pub thought it would. ;) That said, great video. I wasn't sure if I would enjoy it but... yeah, I did. :)

I think the funniest thing about the Predacus set is that Ravage and Tarantulus stick out like sore thumbs, but when you take the actual color of the council's models into account, it'd be a nice, sleek mostly-black combiner.

To be fair, Flak was a long-forgotten Micromaster whose alternate mode was relatively similar to Cybertron Defense Scattorshot.

Dang man...to this day I'm so sad that I'll never own the Stunti-Con Job set. I was in high school when that set came out, but of course being in high school I didn't have the money to go to Botcon nor drive to Pasadena. It sucks that as soon as I got old enough to be able to go to Botcon, it fizzled out and died. I'm glad TFCon is having US cons now to fill in the gap, at least.

Oh Clench, I keep hoping for a modern version but I'm not that lucky

That shattered glass Treadshot is actually really good looking

The Shattered Glass concept is based off the Star Trek Episode "MIRROR, MIRROR" not "Broken Mirror", which a is a fairly recent Transformers Stop motion , by Crosshairs Productions. :D I can see your confusion. Fairly similar name.

The Animated theme also gave us a Shattered Glass Galvatron and Thundercracker souvenir set, as well as some hints at Shattered Glass Animated.

I wish somehow WhiteMocha's BotCon digibashes could become a reality.

The Axalon crew(plus Dinobot) set definitely was a high water mark. Every vehicle made sense, and even some nods to fans as Landmine kinda had "twin chain guns o' doom" with the blade gimmick, and when the original Hoist came out many fans said "hey his face looks like Dinobot". So....they went with it. It wasn't just a good set, with good figures, it was a SMART set, reusing molds to the best effect.

I know they're really goofy, but I love the Most Wanted box set. I've owned Battletrap, own Megatron, and plan on owning Oilmaster when I have the money. It was my only Botcon, so it's also a nostalgia thing. There's just something unique to me about how they managed to make a story with such a wide breadth of characters mesh. General Prime and Sgt Hound, Waruders, Diaclones, and on! It's a unique spin on the multiverse collision storyline to me.

i'd love to get that deathsaurus. it's one of my holy grails. i saw the combiner predacon set in the wild once for 500. not worth it.

Hasbro really should have explained how the Great War ended in the early 2000s. Botcon Arcee and Cyclonus were great concepts

For a sec I tought moving the camera and the dead silence was a set up for a joke.

Energon Prime should’ve been done up as Machine Wars Prime. Either that or Universe Silverbolt as MW Starscream (or both) should’ve. Even the star of the set

Waspinator could have been Cybertron Buzzsaw. I agree. I also think Optimus primal could have been Cybertron Dirt Boss.

21:59 I know that The Allspark forums showed off some different ideas/concepts for that set.

I loved the most wanted comic and the diaclone burnout and lift ticket figs, Hasbro redid the lift ticket though

I really wanted that Cybertron Scourge figure. yet to find one being sold as a solo piece.

They probably made Tarantulus the vehicle it turns into instead of a motorcycle was because Hasbro didn't have a motorcycle combiner figure of that size.

Botcon was probably the only convention where we got to see the morbidly obese magnificence of G1 Unicron in 1996 and 2009 Botcon.

I'd love for Hasbro to do Cybertronial vehicle modes for the Beast Wars cast. I mean, Cheetor would obviously be yet another Sideswipe, maybe Prowl at best, but I'd take it!

I like obscure sources getting their own new toys.

Machine Wars Strika is one of the only botcon toys I have, I got her along with a Fracture from a seller on Ebay. I didn't bother trying to find obsidian, I really love that mold's vehicle but I don't like the robot mode proportions. The Warpath mold really DOES suit Strika though, the only way to improve it would be to upscale it to voyager size. I also have Flareup from the Pirate's vs Knights set but I didn't see her in the picture you showed, was she a separate release?

What TJ says about using the Siege figures to homage Beast Wars characters is why I have dubbed Redwing, Terrorsaur.

The Games of Deception set gave us the figure that would become a Shattered Glass Alpha Trion, before SG existed!

Those Wings of Honor Sweeps would get repurposed as Shattered Glass Scourge. So Shattered Glass appeared in that year too. Hehe.

I remember they were gonna a titan master set with abunch of action masters and hotshot

I mean they did make most of the machine wars cast in that botcon.

Now now. We all know Botcon Exclusives aren't about the stories or the figures. It's all about that Double Corrigated Cardboard.

Love the video

I still wish I could’ve gone to Botcon when it was the 20th anniversary of beast wars

Not gonna lie, I think some of the criticisms are pretty silly or nitpicky. Like, Cybertron's Most Wanted was friggin great! Granted I liked it mostly works for me because I think the Timelines comic was incredibly fun. As for it being a random bunch, if you'd read the Fun Pub comic, you'd realise that's the point. It was basically Guardians of the Galaxy, but set on Axiom Nexus. It was amazingly fun and I wish I could get my hands on the set, but the aftermarket prices are insulting.

Dawn of Future Past & Stunti-Con Job are definitely the best & most unified sets. Others were mostly a vehicle for one or two high demand items or high concept ideas, which might not end up in the box set itself, like 2016 BW Megatron from the RID mold. I kinda miss the pre-Fun-Pub cons, when there were fewer toy exclusives, and they were more of a surprise souvenir than a collector commodity.

Flak was a Autobot Micromaster.

Wait they CANCELED future Machine Wars releases? So we're saying we could have gotten a MW Soundwave? And they didn't do it? Boy, that just makes me hates the fact they decided to do Obsidian and Strike for that set EVEN MORE.

Will you do a video about the Collectors Club figures? I still had the Generations Armada Thundercracker they did, and I really loved the use of Prime Starscream as the first version of Slipstream. I wish I hadn’t sold that one…

looking at the new united cybertron screamer... i kinda want to get a repaint for shattered glass, or maybe just a custom

missed opportunity to have a set fully themed around Tonka's Gobots.

When it comes to Dawn of the Predacus, it would've been nice if they used the Groove mold for Tarantulas. Like, it's right there. Wouldn't be 100%, but it'll be much better than the Rook mold

Honestly i agree with tjomega about the beast wars botcon set and i WISH i could have them but i still wish they did 2 themes with the beast wars cast. 1) the beast wars cast with bayverse movie designs and 2) the beast wars cast with vehicle modes as in generations toys (your classics, thrilling 30s, the prime wars trilogy and war for cyberton trilogy) since out of those 2 themes got many good choices to them Edit: i know the examples for the second theme is a bit off due to botcon ended the fun pub before some of those lines but its more of if kept goning

I missed my one chance to get that R.i.d megatron mold and I seriously regret it. Never knew they made a Deathsaurus version.

23:50 Well, I'm sure there's be someone who wants him. ;) Really good overview of the Botcon sets, here.

FunPub made G2 Ramjet and Starscream but didn’t make them for the set it’s weird af Universe Silverbolt and Onslaught also easily could’ve been put in their G2 colors. They could’ve gotten away with doing Classics Prime in toy colors with G2 Autobot logos and different guns. Classics Grimlock in blue couldn’t have looked that terrible. So many options

I will never get over the fact they didn't redecoed Energon Landmine into Clench. I mean, that mold was made for Clench They redecoed and rereleased Energon Landmine, and they released a modern Clench, but no one at Transformers HQ could see how appropiate the mold was for Clench (Universe Onslaught is still an impressive mold tho)

I still think they made waspintor a jet is a reference to possession plus I can’t think of any Time when they did a cyberronian helicopter

This video makes my wallet cry

Very enjoyable video

Botcons 2006, 2008 and 2011 are my all-time top 3.

I freaking love that moment of silence before the video began... just for you to adjust your webcam. Also, my BotCon Holy Grail is '94 G2 Breakdown - that's what I have my eyes set on right now.

I remember wanting the Cybertronian Beast Wars characters as a kid, though it was impossible for me at the time (and, now, will forever be). There were some other figures here and there that I also really liked, but, in general, none of them were things I really wanted, since were toys already in the market, but with new heads and different colors..

Let’s see how this goes Better uses of the Breakdown mold than that lackluster Megatron thread, go!

You can still buy directly from Fun Pub? I always thought that Strika from the Warpath mold was a great looking figure.

Stunti-con job is probably my favourite of all the box sets, but I’ve always wished they used animated Wreck-Gar’s toy for Motormaster without the garbage truck arms so he looked like a delivery truck that could emulate the original Motormaster’s trailer

I suspect the idea with Shattered Glass Jazz looking so much like regular Jazz was that all the other characters in Shattered Glass had Classics toys (except Ricochet, who nobody cares about), but Jazz didn't at the time. So it was basically a case where he could make for an acceptable Classics Jazz if you gave him a few Reprolabels.

I would’ve done a set like this Fractyl from WFC Terrorsaur Packrat from WFC Rattrap Apelinq from WFC Nemesis Primal Arcee from WFC Blackarachnia and Tigatron from WFC Kingdom Ravage with the attendance figure Glyph

17:45 I actually want that figure because of what Crosshairs Productions did with his characterization.

I am not a fan of the Machine Wars set but I do like the two Beast Machines characters out of it: Obsidian and Strika! The only way it could have been better is if they had used a larger mold for Strika, like Universe Ultra Onslaught. I don't think there was any Shattered Glass connection to this set.

A couple of years ago, I would've wanted the Shattered Glass box set. We have new figures of them now, so it should be cheaper. The BotCon set I'd want now is the Animated Stuticons since I doubt they'll ever reuse those molds or try to replicate it for a new line.

Theme of fun pub bot con was sucking

I always liked Botcon 2009 Flak's color scheme and head the most unlike Scattorshot's mustard colored mug or the Universe 2.0 repaints. I still wish I got that Flak figure

I have a few of the figures: Dreadwind. Took me 12 years to get him at a reasonable price but well worth it. Tap Out Double Punch Treadshot 2005 Chromia in Moonracer colours. Nice little figure. I used to have Thunderclash, Leozack and Skyquake. Nice figures but too small for my taste. It's a tragedy that the Actionmaster set was cancelled. I'd love to get their Skyfall and Sprocket. I love Actionmaster updates. Figures I'd love to get: Ruckus Prime Brakedown Scorponok Ferak Fireguts Ginrai Devcon Tigatron Cheetor Rattrap Dinobot Rhinox Pyro SG Starscream Deathsaurus Landquake Flak Pretender Optimus Prime Glyph Flareup Strika Blastcharge Battletrap Movie Megatron Oilmaster

Dawn of predacus might have had worse execution, but most wanted was the worse idea out of all them. These things maybe five people wanted. I love sg stepper and oilmaster but the boxset should have been about, well, transformers criminals people would actually want toys of.

I cant wait for the new botcon im sure agabyss has plenty pf suprises instore for its return

What a fascinating insight into the BotCon sets. Looking back at the choices for characters and molds each year, it does make a lot of sense why Fun Pub declined the way it did. So many random decisions to try and tie a central theme and story to each time. Heck, even the Grand Galvatron Combiner set takara did is a much more creative use of characters/molds than that half-hearted Tri-Predacus one. Really enjoyed this video!

I don’t think calling the G2 redux idea a theme falling apart, I disagree. I see it as REDOING G2 from everything that should’ve happened in g2. I’m not remembering how sky byte fell in story wise but I thought it was an interesting idea.

For some reason i actually wanted a ferak

I think SG Jazz was intentionally low effort so it could fill in as Classics Jazz

I also think they had less and less stuff to make, as more and more characters were available at retail, like having a sweep team, a Kup or an ironhide was amazing back then, but less at a time where you could find them at target for 15 bucks. They still had a LOT they could have done though

One of my collector dreams is owning a botcon set. Hoping for knights vs pirates.

Silas breakdown mold

Wasn't Tigatron's flat head... and Ravage because he also shared that mold, wasn't that done because it was the only way the head would fit into vehicle mode? I never seen one in person but I always thought they did that for practical reasons rather than any loss of quality. Anyway... Dawn of Future's Past was always a set I really liked. Though it kind of annoyed me that they made a full set of the Axalon crew plus Dinobot. Megatron and Waspinator were sold separately. Scorponok, Tarantulus, and Terrorsaur however didn't have any toys so you were missing have the crew of the Darksyde. It also doesn't help that depending on if you read the comic or watched the Theft of the Golden Disk they used two different models for Scorponok, one seemed to based on his Energon name sake in BW colors which would mean he was already a scorpion on Cybertron and the other was based on Cybertron... I forget the name of it but that mold you fan moded into a toilet. They would make all these characters in later years but they always used molds that I don't think fit with the Cybertron asthetic that the original set was going for. And some of them they did multiple times. I actually like Machine Wars Obsidian and Strika because Beast Machines had already made if very clear that they were involved in the great war which never really made sense because there were no characters named Obsidian and Strika before Beast Machines so it made no sense for Primal to recognize their names as famous Autobots from the great war. This actually rectified that problem by giving us basically "G1" versions of them. Now the real problems with that set is that they didn't actually cast the characters as Autobots, they were casted as Decepticons even though Beast Machines heavily implied they were on the Autobots side during the Great War and had only allied themselves with Megatron in Beast Machines because their loyalty was to Cybertron itself not any particular faction. Also they used a movie mold for Obsidian for some reason which doesn't really fit the G1 aesthetic. I mean Obsidian and Strika don't really look good together when they're clearly from two entirely different toy lines. That's why I hate the Bayformer style they stick out like a sore thumb and don't blend well with other Transformers. I also have no idea why it was branded as Machine Wars cause no one cared about Machine Wars and the other characters just felt like they were thrown in at random. This was really just an excuse to give us pre-Beast Machines Obsidian and Strika who were really the main draw of this set. The next year the only figure that looked interesting was Protoform X from Prime Megatron. It kind of made sense to make a Pre-BW Rampage except that they cast him as a Maximal when BW made it seem like he was always a Predacon. Maximals experimented on him but nothing suggested that he was ever a Maximal himself. And again, the mold choice didn't make any sense. Like they picked that mold just because it was the only Cybertronian design available at the time and they put a new head on him but the body really doesn't fit the character at all. And I actually like the Predacus set. I like that they make them look like their animation models rather than the toys since the animation models look nothing like their toys anyway and being a pre-Beast Wars comic it made sense for them to look like they did in the cartoon. I even like that because they needed 5 characters instead of 3 to make the combiner work that they used Tarantulus and Ravage to fill those extra slots because they were both known to have been working directly for the Tripredacus Council in Beast Wars. The things that don't work for me... and this has never made sense to me... Why do they keep making Tigatron and Airazor on Cybertron. They were Protoforms. They shouldn't have pre-BW Incarnations. Rhinox make a huge speech in Airazor's introduction about when a spark first comes online basically cementing the idea that Protoforms are new borns... but the comics that are suppose to be a prequel to that basically ignore that and tells us that Airazor was already a Maximal on Cybertron and was turned back into a Protoform TWICE before the Beast Wars. The first time a bunch of Transformers, including Airazor were turned into Protoforms as the result of some Decepticon experiment and then at some point Airazor was reactivated with a new vehicle mode where she met Tigatron again having no memory of him and then the second time both Airazor and Tigatron had their sparks remotely downloaded into blank protoforms on board the Axalon just before the Predacons blew up their ship. It just kind of felt like fan fiction to include them where it didn't really make sense to include them. We also got Unit 3 and and Terrorsaur for some reason. Now I understand that Terrorsaur was still needed to complete the Darksyde crew but randomly using a Combiner Wars mold? He doesn't have a combiner team to go with him, he doesn't make sense to include in any combiner teams. Why use a Combiner Wars mold? I feel like there were better options to use for a pre-Beast Wars Terrorsaur than a random Combiner Wars mold that doesn't actually fit in with any existing set anywhere. Unit 3 is also an homage to a random McDonald's toy that no one remembers or cares about at all. The real reason that Tigatron and Unit-3 exist is because they needed 2 more figures for Magnaboss. And this is the real problem with the sets here... They put a lot of effort into Predacus, that's a great set, and I love it... Magnaboss however really deserved better. They didn't even bother making an actual Magnaboss set. They made sticker sheets for your retail versions of Silverbolt, Ironhide, and Prowl instead of repainting them in BW colors. The stickers do not look look and don't work very well. Then instead of picking two extra characters who would make sense like they did with Predacus they threw in two random characters out of no where. I understand that's no real actual fiction for Magnaboss in the cartoon like there is for the Tripredacus council but I still feel like there were better options for Magnaboss than two randos. What about repainting Combiner Wars Optimus as Lio Jr. Brawl as Santon, and Air Raid as BW Skywarp that way it's playing homage to the fact that the Japanese version of Magnaboss are actually original characters and not G1 Characters in new bodies. It would give you two different torso bots to play with either Lio Jr. or Silverbolt and I would imagine that depending on which torso you're using you would either have Ironhide and Prowl as the arms on Silverbolt while Santon and Skywarp form the legs or Santon and Skywarp as the arms on Lio Jr. while Ironhide and Prowl form the legs. Either way you end up with Magnaboss. I never had an issue with the Predacus set, I love that set. The Magnaboss set that's suppose to go with it is where it falls flat. Also I love the Shattered Glass concept... there are some things I would have changed to make it better... honestly just making everyone swap factions so the Autobots are lead by Megatron and the Decepticons are lead by Optimus Prime would make way more sense. Good Decepticons makes no sense, it has deception right in the name, I only just recently read those comics and I still don't understand why they're called Decepticons in that universe. Beyond the pre-Beast Wars stuff and the Shattered Glass stuff all the other exclusives feel totally random. And the BW Dragon Megatron from RID2001 Megatron I love the concept but there's no real way to build a set around it that actually makes sense. That's probably what all that random sets were to be honest, just ideas that on their own could be interesting but as a set don't actually fit any particular theme.

How bad was the Machine Wars theme? I have 10 of the Sandstorm and Electrons souvenir set and 2 box sets I bought during the sale to flip at conventions. No takers at all. I'd love this style video for the TFCC toys

My botcon idea Diaclone bots box set Delta magnus ( siege ultra magnus ) Silverstreek ( siege bluestreek ) Dk-2 guard ( siege ironhide ) Deep cover ( kingdom sideswipe ) Wreck n’ rules box set Pyro ( legacy prime universe bulkhead ) Guzzle ( kingdom slammer ) Ironfist ( siege hound ) Diaclone topspin ( titans return topspin ) Thundercrash ( siege ultra magnus with new head and new chest and new shoulder armor ) Generation 2 box set Optimus prime ( earthrise optimus prime ) Bumblebee ( wfc bumblebee ) Jazz ( studio series 86 jazz ) Grimlock ( studio series 86 grimlock ) Slag ( studio series 86 slag ) Beachcomber ( potp beachcomber ) Mirage ( kingdom mirage ) G2 defensor box set Hot spot ( combiner wars hot spot ) Streatwise ( combiner wars streetwise ) Blade ( combiner wars blade ) Rook ( combiner wars rook ) Groove ( combiner wars groove ) The heroic decepticon soldiers box set Sideswipe ( kingdom sideswipe with armada wheeljack chest ) Skywarp ( earthrise skywarp ) Slugslinger ( titans return slugslinger ) Crasher ( rid 2015 strongarm with new head ) Shattered glass autotrooper 3 pack All our war box set Shattered glass galvatron (kingdom /legacy galvatron ) Shattered glass cyclonus ( kingdom cyclonus ) Shattered glass blitzwing ( legacy blitzwing ) Shattered glass scourge ( studio series 86 scourge ) Shattered glass treadshot ( studio series 86 jazz ) Power of the allspark set Nightwatch optimus prime ( studio series 2007 optimus prime ) Offroad ironhide ( studio series 2007 ironhide ) Stealth bumblebee (studio series 2007 bumblebee ) Specialist ratchet (studio series dotm ratchet ) Decepticon allspark power Stealth starscream ( studio series 2007 starscream ) Jungle bonecrusher ( studio series 2007 bonecrusher ) Deep desert brawl ( studio series 2007 brawl ) Recon barricade ( studio series 2007 barricade ) Battle of speedway 3 pack Track battle roadbuster Armor topspin Darkside soundwave and buzzsaw Ksi drone box set Optimus prime clone Bumblebee clone Sideswipe clone Red Ksi sentry White ksi sentry Off scene battle 3 pack Blaster and arcee Skywarp Thundercracker The new autobot box set Ultra magnus ( studio series 2007 optimus prime with new shoulder and new head and new accssory:battle hammer ) Clifjumper ( studio series 2007 bumblebee with new head ) Prowl ( tlk barricade with new head with prime wheeljack wepon ) Blurr ( tlk crosshairs with new head and new accssory:blade ) Warpath ( studio series 2007 brawl with new head and new parts ) New autobot warriors box set Kup (tlk hound with new head and new accssory:sniperrifle ) Brawn ( prime bulkhead with new head ) Springer ( studio series helicopter dropkick with new head and studio series tlk drift’s wepon ) Wheeljack ( dotm que with new head and new accssory : emp blaster ) Smokescreen ( studio series 2007 jazz with new head and new accssory: asalt rifle ) Animated Protectobot 3 pack Hot spot First aid Groove The last stand of wreckers box set Impactor Overlord Springer Roterstorm Pyro Season 4 autobots, roll out! Box set Optimus prime Bumblebee Jazz Ironhide Ratchet Autobot specialist box set Sandstorm Trailbraker Hound Lifeline Sunstreaker Till all are gone! Box set Shattered glass optimus prime Shattered glass bumblebee Shattered glass bulkhead Shattered glass ratchet Shattered glass prowl Next gen 3 pack Prowl’s ghost Earth mode clifjumper combiner hunter arcee Attack of the Predacons 3 pack Predacon blackarachnia Inferno Antagony Seakers’ attack! Box set Acid storm Nova storm Ironstorm Sunstorm (new helmet ) Ramjet ( new helmet ) Cybertron Autobots box set Delta magnus Hoist Rad Metalhawk Tap out Thottlebot box set Freeway searchlight Chase Sedan Volks Headmaster jr pack Siren Hosehead Nightbeat Cybertron’s most dangerous decepticon box set Guiltaur Cutthroat Lyzack Runabout Runamuck More than meets the eye attendee set Nautica Riptide The scavenger attendee set Spinister Clankcase The heroic decepticon box set Shattered glass megatron Shattered glass starscream Shattered glass soundwave and lazerbeak Shattered glass lugnut Shattered glass shockwave Decepticon rising box set Axor ( animated lockdown ) Thust (animated starscream with new head ) Dirge ( animated starscream with new head ) Blunt ( animated lugnut with new head and shoulder cannon ) Skytread (animated blitzwing with new head and new torso and new parts ) Autobot warriors box set Wheeljack ( animated rodimus minor with new head and new car mode mask ) Kup ( animated ratchet with new head ) Tracks ( animated samurai prowl with new head and remold vehicle mode and remold body ) Drift ( animated blurr with new head ) Mudflap ( animated bumblebee with new head and new accssory:blaster )

The head for G2 Redux Pyro is officially used for the Fun Pub custom Shattered Glass Hosehead. Plus we got Shattered Glass Ravage in that year.

The only reason SG Treadshot has any significance to me is cos of CrosshairsProductions' Broken Mirror/Ascensionverse stop motion series.

Theme music in my head whenever a set was coherent enough to trigger one. The last set got the Plastic Addict theme because of just how bad it was.

the only time I'll disagree with you is on treadhsot. the paint job makes sense considering that the og teeqdshpt was a repaint of armada sideswipe. might not be the best repaint, but it's at least clever.

Pirate Vs Ninja would've been better. At least then they could've used Animated Prowl (And maybe Jazz)

23:57 - Olin Zarak is not a retool of Lord Zarak, but rather the Spike Headmaster to Cerebros (specifically from the Encore reissue of Fortress Maximus for reasons only FunPub would know).

I'm kinda sad that I was never able to get one of the Botcon sets. I've seen a bunch of the later sets in toy shops. And I can see why they were poorly received.

By the “new botcon” you mean the one by Night Shining / Pete’s robo con? Curious as to your thoughts, if I still lived in Ohio I would have gone to them.

So, but con still exists, it’s just that it’s not as good as it used to be.

I thought Flak was based off the g1 micromaster.

Lol, I came back to this at 666 likes XD! Perfect for April Fools!

Why not have the autobots and Decepticons switch vehicle modes

Beast Hunters Voyager Optimus would have been a better Fire Guts Ginrai.

TJ should review the Dawn of Future’s Past set (someone send it to him)

You couldn't do pics of the alt modes?

The 3H exclusives were better in my opinion. The beast ones were all incredibly creative and unique when compared to some of the later sets. Dawn of Predacus is just really bad.

I think I've defended it before, but I would say that I'd assume that making Waspinator a Jet may have been a call forward to his Transmetal figure, which of course did turn into a fighter jet and a Wasp, which in turn was presumably inspired by (or inspired, presumably they were working on designing the figures while they were working on the show, so I don't know which order it would go in) the episode of the cartoon where Starscream possessed him.

Ah yes, Botcon's G2 Redux. Featuring four G1 characters and a character from fucking RID. Still hate how the themes just kept getting worse and worse, with more and more tacked-on shattered glass bullshit... and don't get me started on the Machine Wars one. They did MW so dirty.

Dawn of the Predacus was not an alternate universe. It was a prequel to Dawns of Future Past. Of course the customizing class that year had Shattered Glass Ratchet.