More pics of Cyclonus!
http://www.tf08.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=91
In my experience, Takara rarely paints silver plastic silver.
As for fully-painted prototypes used for packaging and promotional photos, check out Galaxy Force. All the protos in that were fully painted, so you had Galaxy Convoy pics with shiny silver paint on all his silver/grey plastic, which of course, would have never made it onto the final toy due to budget.
Both companies have been doing this for years, so I don't see why it's such an exception for Hasbro to be doing business as usual now.