BotCon 2006

UNICRON.COM REPORT -- BOTCON 2006

What a show. What a great, busy, wonderful, fun show it was! The pictures to the left will give you an idea of what we were up to and some of the fun things we saw. (Each of the smaller pictures are links to a larger higher rez versions). Dang, there were a lot of other things we'd have like to have taken pictures of... jeez, a lot of other things. But this is about all we had time for (and remembered)! Before we get too far into our report, we want to say hello, and THANK YOU to all those who came to our booth and supported us, our site and our new products, but picking up a set of GOLDEN DISKS. It was really awesome to get to meet everyone and enjoy the whole experience... Thanks. It was the one time we had to close up shop in the middle of 'business hours.' None of us were willing to miss the Hasbro panel. There's always some great new news and info there and so we closed down and made our way over. I can type pretty fast, so I took notes as fast as I could! Sure, much of this has been out on various sites already, but we thought we'd include everything we learned about. Hopy you find some interesting new tid bits, you haven't heard before!

Lukis Bros. gettin' ready to depart After booth set-up, just before the convention floor opens (that's Jason and Brian) Another table full of toys to admire! Me (Perceptor) and Blu Mankuma, the Voice of Tigatron from Beast Wars NEW prize of my collection! Peter Cullen autographs my MIB Optimus Prime! Very cool! Children's play area w/ about 50 Supreme Starscreams! What kid wouldn't love that!?!? Original package art, Perceptor. Wow! Casino Night! Simon Furman gives Jason (and others) a few blackjack tips! HIGH STAKES! Chris Ryall, Simon Furman, and Dan Taylor of IDW Publishing, wager their TF comic license on this next hand! Byrerprime and I getting ready for day 2, In front of us, the Golden Disk Accessory Pack! Richard Newman, voice of Rhinox and Vector Prime Display at the convention opening. Countdown to TF the movie, LIVE!

Beneath this, toward the bottom of this page, you'll find photo galleries the fan art display and Hasbro exhibits. Enjoy! Hasbor panel: Aaron Archer, Greg Lombardi Forrest Lee (copyrighter he comes up w/ the character bios, cool!) Agenda: TF movie update Newest Toys Sony BMG 20th DVD Hasbro Q&A Starts w/ the movie poster. There will be 2 unique preview movie figures available May 2nd, following the star wars pre prequel tradition, these 'sneak peek' figures will be released prior to the film's debut. From screen to plastic they've been working dilegently with the art dept... What been able to get in plastic is amazing. It’s looking awesome. I think you guys are going to be surprised at how well they turn out. No more redecos , this is it for Cybertronon. Classics coming. The idea here is to bring back very cool toys for kids, fill the gap until TF movie, still reminescent of classic originals, only better! Minicons coming back: terrorsaur, knockdown swoop. These were originally intended to be sold as 2-packs, then went to 3. So there are some unique pairings, this is why all trio's don’t all fully make sense! Dreadwing: eagle, Snarl: wolf, Overbite: tiger minicons hensed the "Cincinnati Bengal Predator attack team." (joking! Several of the toy designers are Bengal NFL football team fans). Story behind the original thought process and classics, wanted it to be a sequel to G1. Mini-cons have become Minicons are an important tier of the Transformer and Cybertron ecosystem. That’s what you’ll see written in character bios... Dirge digger team oil slick red purple car, Grindor.. Cyb legends, Fireflight, Menasor he wants everybody to call fireflight “Powerglide" because they couldn’t get the name, so went w/ Fireflight, by default. The Op v. Meg versus pack, wanted to have something that was a great entry way into the brand. New molds inspired by original story/comics. Put together a basics TF 101, getting youngest and older fans coming back up to speed w/ the story basics. It’s using Armada, Energon, Cybertron, Beast Wars, G1... It’s a whole new episode, to tell a whole new story. Classics Cliffjujmper coming as a recolor of bumblebee. (Crowd goes wild!) Ramjet different wings, different head different missiles than Starscream. Classics Megatron. Really wanted to do him justice. This is as close to it as we could get w/ megs as a gun. “I cannot encourage you to go buy paint, but hm, if you want…" That is, they're not crazy about the crazy orange, needed for child safety laws, but that's why it's there. Jetfire. Trying to get Skyfire, wanted to do it right. In classics form, getting it just right. Jet packs come off and he has 2 different heads! Optinmus Movie anniversary, wanted an item that really tied in w/ new DVD. Same molds w/ same die cast, cleaned up version, no battle damage version. Base w/ real sound effects at same price as the original. Sort stacks. Not Peter Cullen, because of time constraints (apparently, he might have been in the midst of interviewing for the new movie, and figured better off going w/ a Cullen sound-alike.) TRU exclusive, G1 soundwave w/ ravage and laserbeak. Yes we’re going to do soundwave, in a very unique box, in a more classics packaging. Going to hold two tapes? Maybe, send us your opinions. Thundercracker, all in good time. Walmart exclusive Devastator 5 pack. Redeco, very nice recolor of Energon Alternators: Line is coming to the end, starting to focus on the movie… Decepticon Rumble (red) does not have hands Ravage a black jaguar, turning This toy represents the end of Alternators, at least for now. Had the crazy idea to turn a Jaguar into a beast Jaguar. Titanium, 6 inch “Fallen” coming. Ultra Magnus,. Not an op redeco turns into a real looking Ultra Magnus (see pix below). Starwars are doing well still for Hasbro and Attacktix whole different play pattern Hot topic more shirts, hooded sweatshirts reversible red w/ autobot symbol black on the inside w/ decepticon… …Re-releasing more HOC through hot topic. Rebuilding the G1 Other t-shirts, belt buckles, more... Areanna to talk about DVD A few new clips to show. Been working on this project for more than a year… Brought together an advisory planel. An all new trailer… 16-9 true format. They’ve remastered and recolored and resharpened. New commentary by Flint Dille one of the story writers… Executive story consultant, One featuer will be the Japan only story (we always called it “Scrambulski!” (because that's what it sounds like they're shouting! But really it's) "Scramble City". They also went through the 35mm film and found things... She wouldn't say what it was, but she was going through film real frame by frame... found something she hadn't known, and thought, hm, this looks kind of cool. Then I showed it to our panel and they were looking like it’s Christmas time! Going crazy w/ excitement. (Buy the CD to find out!) Spanish and French subtitles Easter eggs on both disks. Pretty cool! Nelson Shin Director. Susan Blu, commentary Matrix of Knowledge fun facts and trivia. I can speak to this. It's pretty cool. With this feature on little buttons pop up and tell fun trivia facts while the movie plays. Some were pretty basic, others really cool things I had never heard before. Hasbro Q/A: Will there be movie toys for characters that are not in the movie… Hm. don't know how to answer this... hm, no comment: * Yes, alternators might come back. * Alternators cannot be in comics because of licensing. Classics could be, but it’s up to IDW. Didn't indicate a preference. (DANG, I really want those toys featured in comics.) *...There’s a good chance that Classics continues into 2008. * Movie line will be a full line. That's all he'd say. * Most movie things will be in similar size scales to what we’ve seen in toys before… *Classics starts w/ “top tier” We’ll get to more if it sells well. * Whatdy think of Japanese toy license and what about the cell phone, game boy. Can’t talk about the clellphone… No comment (w/ big smirk!) * Whatdya think about the kiss play line? They (Takara) can do what they want. Doesn’t make sense for us, but whatever!… *Will we ever see Maximals and predacons? No plans right now, but who knows. * Someone asked about a Cadalliac XLldfkjfj listing, will that toy exist and who was it? “We were going to make it, but a model was never made. We might still after but for now, now. It was going to be Megatron!” (Crowd goes crazy!) *6” Titanium War Within Grimlock has been green lighted. * How many waves of classics? they answered 2 at first, then changed answer to 3. "Everything that’s coming out as classics will be out in display case." (See pix below!)

TRANSFORMERS ART DISPLAY/CONTEST -- BOTCON 2006 click the thumbnails to view larger high-rez images

HASBRO DISPLAY AT BOTCON 2006 click the thumbnails to view larger high-rez images