BotCon 2014 news bits (and some photos)

[griffin]

From my own notes and camera, here is the more interesting news and photos from this year's convention.

Since my full report will take a couple weeks, I wanted this posted up while the convention is still fresh in peoples minds... and maybe include some things you didn't see/read on the global fansites.

I will be adding posts for each panel and event which might take a few hours, so keep coming back and scroll through the topic.

(I'll update this first post with any new News posts)

[griffin]

Wednesday 18th June.

Custom Class - Primal Prime.


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Package pickup.



Outside the convention centre...


Thursday 19th June.

LA tour.

Disney Hall


Hollywood sign.


Griffith Observatory


Santa Monica Pier


Club Store queue


Exclusives.

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[griffin]

Friday 20th June,

9am - James Roberts Panel (IDW SPOILERS)



Started out doing fanfics with the UK Transmasters club, that continued the Gen1 story.
Worked on Last Stand of the Wreckers and Chaos, before the current ongoing.

RID & MTMTE titles were originally the other way around, but were swapped so that MTMTE better matched the mystery themes of the series set on the Lost Light.

(some of this could be slightly off, as I am a bit behind on the comics, so was just writing down what I could work out from his answers)

A third part to Chaos Theory and Shadow Play is coming soon, featuring the "Functionists".

Quintessons - in the mix, but not being featured.
Unicron - no plans, but can exist in this universe.
Xaaron - James wanted him in the story since the beginning.
DJD - a season 2 over-arching plot
Rung's alt-mode - the plot was more important than allowing for the potential for a toy.
Rodimus - is dead
Drift - will return
Tyrest - was originally planned to have two faces on the front of his head, but they couldn't get it to work.
Brainstorm's briefcase - will be opened in issue 34.
The coffin - was always intended to contain Rodimus from Issue 1... it was not something they did to make room for Megatron.
Fort Max - currently on Lunar 1 with the Circle of Light, will return soon.
Grimlock - with the Scavengers, returning soon in a 2-part story

Favourite characters - Pharma & Tarn.

His advice on MTMTE - be apprehensive... every page your favourite character survives is a bonus.


2pm - Dealer Room opens.

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Stan Bush.


3pm - Universal Studios Fan Experience.

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Hasbro's Dinobots presentation.
Started off with announcing this year's Hall of Fame inductees - Arcee, Rodimus, Stan Bush.
Then featured the different eras of Dinobots.

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Stan Bush's concert (about an hour, performing 7 songs).

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Merchandise from Universal Studios, including the exclusive T-shirt, poster and plastic cup. (other items I bought from the gift shop)


Still to come - Saturday panels and events, Sunday panels, and some of the non-BotCon stuff I did, including the toys I bought.

[DELTAprime]

LA tour.

Disney Hall


Hollywood sign.


Griffith Observatory


Santa Monica Pier

I love that you visited a bunch of Grand Theft Auto V locations.

[MayzaPrime]

Looks like a good trip Grif...

Cant wait to see the rest

[Mythirax]

I love that you visited a bunch of Grand Theft Auto V locations.

That's exactly what I was thinking

How did you get everything home Griff, heaps of suitcases?

[griffin]

Saturday 21st June.

10am - Rescue Bots



Brian (Producer) - Gregg (story Editor) - Nicole (story editor) - Jason Marsden (Cade)- Elan Garfias (Cody) - Shannon McKain (Graham) - Parvesh Cheena (Blades) - Steve Blum (Heatwave) - Imari Williams (Boulder).

Imari was a last minute addition, who wasn't even included in the program guide.

In terms of timing, Season 1 and half of Season 2 fit within Season 1 of TFPrime. The latter half of Season 2 would correlate with the start of Season 2 of TFPrime... which may or may not be relevant, as Rescue Bots will NEVER have Decepticons, and will not play a part in the TFPrime universe.
Other TFPrime Autobots/characters may appear in Rescue Bots, but we have to wait and see.
Same answer to the question of Female Bots... so maybe the next crossover character is Arcee.

No plans for a Rescue Bots Art book.

Hoist & Medix were never intended to be in the show.

Mark Hamill will return as a guest, as will others that they didn't want to announce.

Virgil was designed to homage the robot from "Lost in Space", and was even voiced by the actor who played Will Robinson.

Season Boxsets are unlikely, due to the demographic of the cartoon.

Season 3 is currently in production... and we saw a sneak peek B&W "animatic" of the first episode, with Heatwave transforming into a boat (like the new toy) and the appearance of a pterodactyl from a volcano.
The next season should start in the Fall (our spring-time)... which isn't far away.


11am - Hasbro



John - Bill - Mark - Lenny - Ben - Mark Weber
(some are designers, one is a colourist, and one is product marketing)

2014 overview, similar to the Hasbro Toyfair presentation, which showed the different demographics they are targeting.
Preschool - Simple steps - Rescue Bots
Boys/girls - 1-10 steps - TF4
Fan - puzzle play - TF4 & Generations

Complexity graph showed the peak in 2012, which was preventing repeat customers, so are now trying to find a balance between play and puzzle.

Generations numbers for older collectors...
2012 - 9
2013 - 54
2014 - 73

Rescue Bots - nothing new shown (Mini Dinos, "Rescan" bots, Electronic Optimus)

Heero Mashers - Wave 1 we've seen before.
Wave 2 Basic - Rodimus Jetfire
Wave 2 Deluxe - Soundwave, Slug

Kreo
Custom Wave 3 - Strafe, Slug, Scorn, Grimlock
Dinobot Ride freebie pack (small Grimlock w/ mini-Optimus Kreon - 46 pieces) - June 24th at US ToysRUs for some promotion.


Age of Extinction

Power Battlers Wave 3 - Grimlock Galvatron, Slug, Snarl, Lockdown.
(Snarl confirmed to be an "off screen" character, so is not in the movie)
Power Battlers Wave 4 - Vehicon, High Octane Bumblebee, Junkheap ("off screen" garbage truck - can use chomp gimmick in both modes)

One Step Basic Wave 3 - Drift (Helicopter), Galvatron, Slug, Steeljaw (blue wolf), High Octane Bumblebee
One Step Basic Wave 4 - Strafe, Rollbar (off screen white/purple car), Prowl (off screen police car), ROTF Megatron.

Deluxe wave 2.5 - Lockdown
Deluxe wave 3 - Bumblebee, Snarl, Hot Shot (blue Crosshairs?)

Exclusives
Leader 2-pack - Optimus & Grimlock
Autobots United - Drift, Hound, Optimus, Bumblebee, Crosshairs (slight redecos)
Breakout scene - white VOY Optimus, Rollbar (redeco GEN Skids), Crankcase (redeco TF3 DLX)
(they wanted to call the set "Farmageddon", but were content with having it mentioned on the back of the box)

SDCC Dinobots shown - a matching Gen1 Sludge is possible later in the year, to complete the set.
The Ark was designed by the same guy who did the Pop-up book from last year.

SDCC Rock Band Tour pack shown.


Generations 2014.

Legends Wave 4 - Nemesis Prime w/ Spinister, Cliffjumper w/ Suppressor

Deluxe Wave 5 - Chromia (new blue cycle), Arcee (new pink car)

Voyager Wave 4 - Brainstorm w/ Arcana (head)
(Arcana fits in cockpit, and activates stats when plugged in as a head)


Generations 2015.
New packaging style for Generations to differentiate it a little more from the Movie toys.
Will include a character card, and Deluxes will continue to have comics.

Legends Wave 1 - Powerglide, Thundercracker, Windcharger, Bombshell (they got the name back).
(no "Targetmasters" in 2015 to keep the price-point down)

Voyager Wave 1 - Optimus Prime (new - not based on anything)

Leader Wave 1 - Megatron (Gen1-ish tank from Legends game)
Leader Wave 1.5 - Megatron (Armada tank - redeco with new head).
Working Treads on tanks. Gen1 Megatron will come with an Autobot Sticker for those wanting to replicate the IDW comic.
Gen1 Megatron was originally meant to come out with Jetfire in 2014, but was pushed back to early 2015.

Stats for 2015
Legends - 11 (shown 4)
Deluxe - 16 (shown 0)
Voyager - 6 (shown 1)
Leader - unknown (shown 2)

Theme for 2015.... Combiners. (silhouette of Superion shown)

Masterpiece.
Sideswipe
Bluestreak (black top version)

And yes, there are still more plans for the Titan class.

[reillyd]

That custom class photo of the parts on mold sprues looks just awesome!
I wonder if this is what all TF toys look like before they're assembled?
I'd be kind of curious to hear how difficult it was to put together, and whether you painted any parts before finally assembling?

By the way, if anyone would like to hear James talk, I have the link here to Shout factor's broadcast.
James starts at 1 hour 35 mins. For some reason, it isn't listed under Shout's channel anymore, but I bookmarked it. Hasbro's panel is at 6 hours 28 mins.
Feel free to modify the post Griffin to remove, if you think we shouldn't link to it.

[griffin]

(squeezing in a post to push the last post of photos onto a new page, so it doesn't take as long for people to see each page of posts & photos)

For those interested, some details I refer to are from my own BotCon archive here.

[griffin]

(ignore this post too, for the same reason)