Concept drawings from Robocon 2020

As with some other cancelled conventions recently, the Robocon convention that was supposed to be re-introducing us to BotCon for next year, has posted online 120 odd images that are concept sketches, colour guides, and mould/tooling layouts.

Most are of Armada toys, but there is one interesting concept design that is said to be a "Metroplex" playset for the 2007 movie. The design looks very 1980s, so was either a really early concept for the 2007 movie, or was easily dismissed for not being able to blend in to the Movie toyline.
(it also must mean that Metroplex must have been an option for Michael Bay to use in his movies, but never went that way)

http://www.toycollectors.com.au/news/2020/072401.jpg

I thought this was referencing the 86 movie.

It's hard to tell quite what's what, but the "playset" bit of it seems to look a lot like moments from the film where Hot Rod and Kup are racing to Autobot City - the boom gates, rushing down the valley, and driving into the side opening.

The line "could transform into a giant robot if supported by the movie" also lines up with the comment that Metroplex was supposed to be in the movie as part of Autobot City.

To me, the art style looks similar to the 1980s Takara concept drawings seen in the Generations book, which is why I thought it was meant to be for the 1986 Movie, but the people who did the presentation claim that it was for the 2007 Movie.
I think they were wrong.

Some other things revealed at Robocon's virtual event, and the BotCon people from earlier this year (which I only recently came across).

The panel to talk about next year's BotCon. (I haven't watched it yet)

A reveal from the Transformers archive, about a proposed version of the original Universe line back when Armada was on. It was called Transformers Super Cross, and it's description suggests that it might have been multi-verse type of toy and cartoon series to follow on from Armada, but ended up being split up into Energon and Universe instead. The link has some images of the story outline, which has Aaron Archer's name on it.

Quote:

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Back in 2002, with work on Transformers Armada wrapping up and Energon yet to be drafted, the design team were contemplating the next escalation in storytelling after the defeat of Unicron. In a massive 4 season, 52-episode saga called “Super Cross” (or “Super-X” for short), Cybertronians would discover that their victory over the evil god of chaos was not as final as they had thought. And they would need the help of the All-Sparks – important Autobots, Decepticons, Maximals, and Predacons from across the Multiverse, to come together for one last stand. The outcome after this crisis? A single joint timeline with everyone’s favorite characters in one place and time!

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Unused BotCon sample of "Unicron Trilogy Ratchet" from the mould that they used for the 2014 Cannonball toy... but since they had so many QC problems with the Cannonball toy, they decided against using it again.

I think I posted this somewhere else, but in case I didn't, another unused BotCon concept was this Shattered Glass Optimus Primal done in Beast Wars Megatron colours and a mini Onyx Primal.

Quote:

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And maybe you remember a couple years ago when we revealed that one of the potential/canceled exclusives was Titans Return Onyx Primal. But that wasn’t the only time that an homage had been planned!

When word came down that the license was ending, we wanted to make the final TFSS subscription “freebie” figure an homage to something unmistakably “Club/BotCon”. The Hasbro-approved final freebie at the time was Combiner Wars Sunstorm. We wanted to switch it out though. And the figure we wanted was… Shattered Glass Beast Wars Optimus Primal! This would have been a recolor of the Pretender Optimus Prime in SG colors with the Micro/Targetmaster in an Onyx Primal scheme!

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(in case the concept images in the first post of this topic on facebook disappear, they are also here as well)