Pics and concept art of cancelled ideas for Botcon exclusives

[griffin]

Pete Sinclair (from FunPub & BotCon) has revealed on facebook and twitter, a new set of proposed BotCon exclusives... this time for the final BotCon in 2016. (I don't recall anything being said before about a whole different set of BotCon exclusives planned out before they ended up using Combiner Wars moulds - maybe this is something he's recently thrown together, as a different commemoration for the Beast Wars 20th Anniversary).

It looks like this idea had a range of Beast Wars and Beast Machines characters, using a number of older moulds (mostly TFPrime moulds, with one JP Beast Wars mould from about 1999).
One toy (Megatron) ended up at BotCon 2016, and the Under 3 homage (Unit 3) toy was originally planned to use the JP Lioconvoy mould... but all the rest are unique, and not used.

Check out what would have been the convention exclusives and story for BotCon 2016 before it was recommended that it be changed to Combiner Wars. Which do you prefer? Let us know in the comments. Definitely a few here that the team what worked on the sets would have still liked to have seen!
Story: War has gripped Cybertron for millions of years, the deadly stalemate threatening to wipe Cybertronian civilization from existence. Both Autobot and Decepticon, their ranks depleted, have turned to creating a new generation of fighters to carry on the conflict. These Maximals and Predacons are thus forced into a lethal battle not of their making, forced to arm themselves and continue a war that they know nothing about. As the struggle rages, groups on both sides of the battlefield realize that their true enemies stand not before them, but behind them as the oligarchy at home. A new war looms, a BEAST WARS… The uprising has begun!

Boxed Set BEAST WARS: UPRISING
• Predacon Megatron
• Predacon Dinobot
• Predacon Blackarachnia
• Predacon Terrorsaur
• Vehicon Jetstorm


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Attendee Free Figure
• Predacon Scorponok


Souvenir Set One: MAXIMAL COMMAND
• Maximal Big Convoy
• Maximal Rattrap

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Souvenir Set Two: MAXIMAL RESISTANCE
• Maximal Silverbolt
• Predacon Scylla

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Souvenir Set Three: MAXIMAL COMMAND SECURITY FORCE
• Maximal Command Security Force

Pete revealed an additional concept [on twitter] (apparently rejected before this set, then revived yet again in a different form for the actual BotCon 2016 convention)

(I like some of these like Jetstorm, Megatron and Undermine, but just like most of the final few BotCons, there are too many in the set that are too much of a stretch and don't really work as a good homage - just because they "need" to generate 13-15 toys each year, so they have to fill all those extra spots with half-homage ideas after generating the handful of really good homages.)

[griffin]

Another proposed exclusive toy before FunPub folded in 2016 - A Shattered Glass Optimus Primal (evil Maximal) using their newly made Optimus double-pretender shell, with the inner truck coloured like Beast Wars Megatron, and the inner jet coloured like Onyx Primal (the bat toy from BotCon 1996).

Yesterday on the BotCon social media (FaceBook, Twitter, Instagram) there was an article giving the basics about Onyx Primal. And maybe you remember a couple years ago when we revealed that one of the potential/cancelled 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!

The inner, truck mode concept was loosely based on BW Megatron because of the “swap color schemes with counterpart” rule that applied to some SG exclusives.