TFCC Botcon 2016 theme - Dawn of the Predacus

The BotCon 2016 Convention box set will celebrate the 20th anniversary of the ground breaking cartoon and toy line BEAST WARS. Prepare for the "DAWN OF THE PREDACUS". Our first reveal from the 2016 Exclusive Convention box set is the former DECEPTICON who was reprogrammed and rebuilt... as a PREDACON! - Tripredacus Agent RAVAGE!

The BotCon 2016 set will feature FIVE all-new head sculpts utilizing the amazing TRANSFORMERS COMBINER WARS action figures.

Stay Tuned to BotCon.com for details on ordering this amazing box set.
-TFCC Facebook Page

https://www.facebook.com/15125534826...type=3&theater

The first reveal looks to be a BW Ravage from the Breakdown mould.

I am surprisingly okay with this. Ravage, at least. It also sort of homages Alternators Ravage.

Interesting... Seems they're going to merge their Beast Wars Uprising storyline with the CW moulds... They really are going all out with CW lately

No BH Soundwave Botanica?

I don't know about this though. Might just buy Alternators Ravage

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Originally Posted by Jaxius._

No BH Soundwave Botanica?

I don't know about this though. Might just buy Alternators Ravage

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Probably in one of the "souvenir" packs

Hmmm, I'm already in for TFSS 4.0. Definately interesting but I'll guess I'll wait to see what other characters come out before making my decision.

Good - the first reveal was six months ahead of the convention, which is a record for them, as they are usually 2-4 months before the convention starts. I wouldn't be surprised if they are rushing these out to get Registration started early for them to get more cash in after this year's failed to sell out on anything.

Good - Beast Wars anniversary, but was pretty much expected.

Good - Combiners, also expected, and as long as they don't mess it up, it should be the first unified boxset since Machine Wars.

Bad - Gen1/BW Ravage as a sports car... I'm not seeing it. It feels like it will be shoe-horned into a storyline that will be difficult to reconcile by purist BW fans (and this BW fan) that it will be aimed at.

Bad - Over-milking the Combiner toys while Hasbro is over-milking them will probably put off people.

Bad - giving more Beast Wars characters Vehicle modes is a bit of a weak way of using the characters in the anniversary year. The 2006 set was able to work by leading into the cartoon, but if they have another pre-BW set or a post-BW set, it won't have the same feel of Beast Wars to it.

Undecided - If they manage to have the majority of the Convention toys be Beast Wars characters done tastefully (not just a replica head on an unrelated toy), it could be a proper anniversary to the Beast Wars series, but after failing to homage 1984 or Gen1 in their "30th Anniversary" year (2014), I will wait and see how many non-BW characters they end up including.


I can guess that "Magnaboss" will be at least three of the toys, with Combiners Silverbot, Ironhide and Prowl included... maybe coloured to look like their BW namesakes.

A fan convention in the UK this weekend has had a panel for the Collector Club hosted by Pete Sinclair, and he announced the first guest for next year's BotCon - David Kaye (Megatron).

That should mean a Megatron toy thrown in as well, to make use of Voice Actor (for autographing the toy and/or Script Reading).

As a Beast Wars fan, I'm not feeling it. I see what they're trying to do (it will be interesting to see which car they pick for the others.

But yeah, Combiner Wars overload.

I imagine this Ravage will have a squished snout but i am liking this particular reveal as i do want a Binaltech Ravage.

Someone suggested Magmatron's combined beast mode could look like the CW SkyLynx mold but i am very skeptical that could be any good.

Yeah, as much as I love Beast Wars, I'm not feeling this for the same reason that others have cited. But I suppose that they're wanting to find some way to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Beast Wars and perhaps they can only use the moulds which Hasbro allow them to use and make do with those. :o

It's arguably not much worse than a G1 character made from a repainted Beast Wars mould, like Arcee, Grimlock, Ironhide, Prowl, Silverbolt, and arguably Windrazor.

Will we get a Tigatron repaint from Ravage? I hope so cause I haven't been able to source the dawn of futures past version

I could not possibly be more underwhelmed by this.....
The ravage head on breakdowns body just looks so off to me.
And even though I am glad they're honouring beast wars' anniversary this just feels more like a slap in the face. Here have a beast wars-ish head slapped on a vehicle body
More than anything though, I am sick of the combiner wars moulds! I do not want these same moulds we've been getting all year and will continue to get next year now also in both the subscription service AND Botcon!

So cynical Griffin ;-)

I am impressed that they are starting to release actual convention information this early.

not being particularly into Beast Wars I hope for others sake that it's a suitable anniversary set. I personally am completely underwhelmed at the prospect of more toys with the same transformation as every other toy on the shelf this year and next year.

Ravage is prob the only figure I'd be interested in. I loved how one of the smallest and weakest Cons from G1 turned up in the BW cartoon and pretty much handed everyone their arses on a platter :D However given the cost of acquiring him on his own it will prob be a pass for me

The 'Predacus' name intrigues me. In Beast Wars (Anglophone continuity), the Predacon gestalt is Tripredacus; an amalgam of three Predacons. So I wonder, will this be a set of Combiner Wars toys redecoed as Predacons to form a Predacon gestalt? If so, what will the gestalt be called? Tripredacus doesn't seem appropriate if there's going to be more than three component members. And if they're going to keep with the Latin nomenclature, then will it be Quintepredacus? Although if there's going to be a 6th member (e.g. Legends Class chest plate) would it be Sexpredacus? :eek: Although they could easily go with Greek nomenclature (as "Tri" is both Greek and Latin), and a 5-member gestalt could be Pentapredacus and a 6-member could be Hexapredacus.

Yes, it would mean combining Greek prefixes with Latin-looking suffixes, however...
1/ While 'Predacus' may appear to be Latin at first glance, it's actually not. Obvious the 'preda' part of "Predacon" comes from "predator," which comes from the Latin word praedari meaning to loot, plunder or ravage. AFAIK praedari never declines as 'predacus.' The perfect active tense would be praedātus, as in "praedātus sum" ("I ravage").
2/ Transformers has a long history of mixing Greek and Latin words to form names anyway. Omega Supreme, Superion, and more recently, Victorion. All Greek-Latin hybrid names.

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Originally Posted by GoktimusPrime

If so, what will the gestalt be called? Tripredacus doesn't seem appropriate if there's going to be more than three component members...... Latin nomenclature, ......... Quintepredacus? ............ be Sexpredacus? ........go with Greek nomenclature ........... Pentapredacus .......... Hexapredacus.

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Based on FunPub's announcement and title of the 2016 theme, the character is (The) "Predacus".

Yes Sexpredacus has that nice, child friendly ring to it doesn't it

I love Beast Wars and went out of my way to collect the entire 2006 Botcon set. I thought that the way they handled a BW prequel was awesome and the associated comic was good too.

This set on the other hand? I don't feel it. Seems tacked on with little thought to it. Basically shoehorning random contemporary molds as BW characters with just a head change - Lame.

Oh well, I was kind of dismissing this anyways given how terrible and lazy FunPub have gotten over the years.

Didn't know that they failed to sell out Botcon last year - Not surprised as the fan ran conventions are said to be much better and grander than what FunPub is putting together.

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Originally Posted by kup

Didn't know that they failed to sell out Botcon last year - Not surprised as the fan ran conventions are said to be much better and grander than what FunPub is putting together.

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The fans have certainly been flocking to the fan-run conventions in the last few years, since FunPub started screwing over their customers from about 2010.

Each year the BotCon attendance/interest seems to drop off, as more and more of the convention toys and events fail to sell out. This year's BotCon was the worst on record (I'd say even worse than 2005), as it failed to sell out of...
- pre-registration
- boxsets
- loose sets
- both Custom Classes (they sold out the Thursday class)
- both Frank Welker VIP groups (they sold out one group I believe)
- the diaclone 2-pack
- the Gen2 2-pack
- the Wasp 4-pack
- the kreo pack
- and probably the custom class toy, poster, trading cards, tshirt and hat, as I didn't see any "sold out" signs up by the end of the weekend (which they post up when they sell out to stop people trying to order them).

Speaking of which... I just saw this after posting that above.

Proof of how bad they are getting with left-over unsold toys - four of the 2014 BotCon toys are being sold off in a special new boxset, called the Legacy Collection for US$185.
(Shokaract, Apelinq, Flamewar, Flare-up)

It's probably not going to win them any friends, as all those people who went to the convention believing that attending was the only way Flamewar would be accessible, it is now for sale (like MW Starscream the year before).
Plus, these four toys come in a nice fancy box, but who's going to buy it if they already have these toys (and most who would want them, would have them by now).
The price isn't very good for four Deluxes either, as they usually sell 2 Deluxes at the Convention for about $90, so these should have been discounted to be less than $180 (even with a box) just to offload them. :rolleyes:

Expect the 2015 toys and attendee figure being sold off in special packaging next year.

Sigh :(

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Originally Posted by Verno

Sigh :(

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I share your sorrow, Beast Wars 20th anniversary deserves better than this..

At least we had a pretty awesome 10th.

While it would never happen for a BotCon, I'd much rather them do the original BW starting cast in all new molds with pre Earth Cybertronian forms. They absolutely should not ever have Earth alternate modes.

That out of the way, Ravage? Bleh.

If they do Waspinator he'll just be another Alpha fricken Bravo.

Hell, i'm surprising Ravage isn't an Alpha Bravo. Infact, I wouldn't be surprised if the entire set were all just Alpha Bravos.

Sorry. Cynical switch is stuck on high tonight.

Second figure revealed

Transmetal Tarantulas from the Rook mold

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Originally Posted by Paulbot

Second figure revealed

Transmetal Tarantulas from the Rook mold

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Colours looks cool (for now) but I think I'll stick with my TFSS Tarantulas from the Wreck-Gar mould

Yes, the motorbike Tarantulas seems more fitting, as it is more agile and sneaky than a big armoured personnel carrier.
(I also used to believe that Transformers have in their DNA/CNA certain types of vehicle modes by default, so that when they change bodies or rescan, they would still remain a related type of alt-mode... and Tarantulas had the motorcycle mode as a Transmetal... not because he scanned one, but because he either used to be one and it was still in his CNA, or he was built/born with that default form inside his biology.)


Rant time... :p

This is the second Tarantulas in 7 months (after the subscription figure)... I guess it could be put down to bad timing, but when they knew they were doing Tarantulas for next BotCon they should have released Subscription Tarantulas first so that it wasn't fresh in peoples minds with this reveal (it was the most recent subscription figure released).

Hopefully they didn't have this Tarantulas toy (and head) planned before the third subscription set was revealed, because they were soooo stubborn about giving a new head to a no-name unreleased Axellorator that didn't need it, over giving an accurate head-sculpt to the universally recognised Tarantulas (who would stand out more with the wrong head).

So far it's the dead Predacon brigade... and having earth vehicle alt-modes, it makes it hard to believe this would be set after Beast Wars.

Yeah I'm not buying it.

I'm surprised they didn't use AoE Dinobot moulds to make some Transmetal Predacons.

Colours look cool. But they are failing horribly with this years set. Certainly not worth the money they'll be charging.

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Originally Posted by UltimateGalvatron

Yeah I'm not buying it.

I'm surprised they didn't use AoE Dinobot moulds to make some Transmetal Predacons.

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That probably would have looked good for Terrorsaur and Dinobot, and maybe Megatron... but on-screen Movie moulds (and licensed alt-modes) are apparently off-limits. At least, that was the line a few years ago, when they were saying that they aren't allowed to release current-retail toys as Club exclusives (and then come out with Onslaught as Bludgeon).
Word filtered through from a panel or podcast from Pete Sinclair is that a recent change in the Transformers team at Hasbro has changed the policy on not using current-retail toys... but I think with royalties going to Michael Bay for every Movie toy that gets released, plus licensing royalties, it would probably push up the cost too much (or it was in Bay's contract that none of "his" designs get re-released without his permission).

It was also announced on the BotCon website along with their Tarantulas toy reveal, the Voice Actor for Tarantulas (Alec Willows) is their second guest next year. (along with David Kaye)
This will be Alec's second BotCon, with his first appearance being 16 years ago in 2000 (ironically, it was the same year that had John Moschitta's only appearance before returning this year after 15 years). He looked like he was about 70 years old 15 years ago, so I wouldn't be surprised if this was his last BotCon appearance.

That's two Predacons accounted for, and almost all Transformers cartoons since Beast Wars (with David Kaye voicing Transformers roles in every series after Beast Wars except RID-2001). While on the other end of the spectrum, Alec Willows has only ever voiced one Transformers cartoon character - Tarantulas.

Speaking of David Kay, next year will be his ninth BotCon (ten if you count 2003), which will make him the most frequent BotCon guest, just jumping ahead of Peter Cullen who is still on eight.


I imagine that Richard Newman (Rhinox) would also be a guest next year, as he went through some financial troubles a year or two ago, and has been invited to a number of conventions since.

It would also be good to cross off the remaining Beast Wars voice actors who haven't been a BotCon guest yet...
Don Brown - Scorponok
Colin Murdock - Quickstrike
Lee Tockar - Ravage
Carol Slavenkoff - Predacon Computer


Unfortunately, Cambell Lane (Rampage) died before being a guest.

A teaser image of the Tripredacus Council from the Beast Wars cartoon has been tweeted by the BotCon people... so maybe the last three toys for the boxset will be the three original Tripredacus members, who had their two agents in the cartoon (Ravage & Tarantulas) already revealed as the first toys.

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Originally Posted by griffin

A teaser image of the Tripredacus Council from the Beast Wars cartoon has been tweeted by the BotCon people... so maybe the last three toys for the boxset will be the three original Tripredacus members, who had their two agents in the cartoon (Ravage & Tarantulas) already revealed as the first toys.

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That's what I'm assuming it wil be.

Next one is revealed, Ramhorn from Brawl.... with a drill...

So IMHO the figures so far have been... miss, miss, hit. Atleast it isnt 3 strikes and out. :p

Ramhorn looks great

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Originally Posted by Trent

That's what I'm assuming it wil be.

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It's clear that's what they are going for which in concept, is not a bad idea but doesn't work at all with the moulds they are using. They should allow the avaliable moulds to dictate the characters and themes each year not try to force it on moulds that are completely inappropriate like this year's set.

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Originally Posted by kup

It's clear that's what they are going for which in concept, is not a bad idea but doesn't work at all with the moulds they are using. They should allow the avaliable moulds to dictate the characters and themes each year not try to force it on moulds that are completely inappropriate like this year's set.

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Agreed!

I'm guessing the voyager will be the green bug one (cicadon?) From... Cyclonus?

A link to Ramhorn from CW Brawl.. http://www.botcon.com/BotCon2016/ima...hornREVEAL.jpg

I am worried about the cartoon cgi red colour and head for Ramhorn. I would have liked to see some purple on it. Hopefully the rest of the council will be more toy accurate in colour or they will all look too similar.

I have a feeling that TakTom may repaint Ramhorn into Nosecone & Groove into Afterburner for Computron

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Originally Posted by fatbot

I have a feeling that TakTom may repaint Ramhorn into Nosecone & Groove into Afterburner for Computron

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ya think:D

I'm starting to feel that computron is going to be a cobbled together mess of half assed remoulds.