Botcon News I'm Excited About

Another year and another Botcon has passed.  It has always been a dream of mine to actually attend a Botcon.  Maybe someday that will happen.  Until then, I will always be glued to sites such as Allspark and TFW2005 for up to the minute Botcon updates and Twitter for up to the second details.  Several things caught my attention whilst perusing the news and I'd like to share what has me excited the most.

First, in a huge surprise, Hasbro is reissuing Predaking!  No, not the current Beast Hunters dragon, but the once and current king of the gestalts/combiners.  This is great news for those who never got the original or any of the Takara reissues as I'm sure it'll be a lot cheaper than trying to get any of those three.  I'd be all over this of it was the plastic version, but judging by the pictures, it looks to be the diecast version, which I have thanks to the last Takara reissue.  The plastic version doesn't have the sagging arms because it's not as heavy.  Still, this is great news and shows Hasvto thinking outside the box a bit.  I haven't been able to track down a price, release date or even which retailer will carry this. Most likely it'll be a Toys R Us exclusive.

From www.tformers.com

Up next, we have the Legends class figures.  Just like Bumblebee and Optimus, these new figures will be two packs.  I haven't bothered to get either Bumblebee or Optimus because I'm generally not a fan of the figures in this size range.  Thanks to Swerve and Cosmos, that has changed.  I love that Swerve looks like he was ripped from IDW's MTME.  And Cosmos has never looked better!

Welcome to Swerve's!

Beautiful

Speaking of MTME, check out Skids!  He finally gets some love!  And he's a Deluxe!  I love the fact that he still has all of weapons that his G1 version did.  The most heavily armed theoretician ever indeed.  Joining Skids in the Deluxe assortment is someone I wasn't expecting - Waspinator!  While I've never been particularly fond of Beast Wars, it's nice to see him included for the 30th Anniversary.

Nineteen eighty-four!

The Voyagers are interesting as well.  I really love the new Rhinox figure.  Making him a Voyager just makes sense for some reason.  Hasbro is also giving us a redeco of Blitzwing as Doubledealer.  I like the deco, especially the shark stuff on the jet mode.  The head sculpt is great too as it really captures the look of the G1 figure.  Hopefully the q/c issues that plagued Blitzwing will be corrected by then.

Maximize!

Dealer

There's a joke here somewhere...I'll think of it eventually.

Lastly, we get our first look at Masterpiece Acid Storm!  The new packaging for the Hasbro's Masterpieces is...interesting.  It certainly sets it apart on the shelf.  As for the figure, I'm a known lover of the mold, both original and the retooled version.  I'm still not sure why Acid Storm and not Sunstorm, however. Maybe Hasbro is trying to brand their own Seeker to distinguish themselves from TakaraTomy?  Who knows.  The green is a little brighter than I'd imagine, but still a very good looking figure.

Not exactly neon, but close.

So that's it for this post.  There are some great figures on the way in the coming months and year.  After what I felt was a down year from Hasbro in terms of figures and quality, they've more than made up for it.  It seems that Hasbro has found a way to pry money from my wallet.  I can't wait!