More Botcon Bashes

I've been on a kick with turning old Botcon guys into vehicles, my next victim-Onyx Primal. I used the Cyclonus mold, partially because it's just a swell mold, but also to stick it to the people who swore it could never be used as a base for anyone else because of the "ears".
Anywho, because he's a Primal/Prime, I gave him a Prime head, it amuses me.

For pics of these digibashed on a card, feel free to check out my Deviantart account!
Credit for base images goes to Seibertron.com

Bar-Bearic

For absolutely no reason other than having a small stockpile of extra Classics Kups sitting around, I started looking for some characters that would fit these wonderful molds.

First up is Barbearian/Grizzly-1. I was torn on this guy because I think he’d work upgraded to both the Generaions Kup or Universe Dropshot mold. I like how massive Dropshot is-it suits a big burly bear and Barbearian is already packing a small arsenal even in his Beast mold, so it would make sense. But on the other hand, the generations Kup mold really gives that “bear” impression both in truck and robot mode. Tough call. In the end I decided to just digibash them both!

For pics of these digibashed on a card, feel free to check out my Deviantart account!
Credit for base images goes to Seibertron.com

E-Hobby Shattered Glass Blaster

In light of the most recent teasers about E-Hobby tackling some Shattered Glass VS sets, another digibash! Fingers crossed it's still Music Label Soundwave vs Device Label Blaster-for the sake of some kind of scale correctness in our Classics displays. ML Soundwave was the base for FunPub's SG Soundwave's color scheme, so I'd be fine if he either remained as he is in the white deco or tweaked slightly. The main focus for me is SG Blaster, who I'd really like to see created from Device Label Blaster.

I think it works quite well, no?
(Credit for base image goes to seibertron.com)

*UPDATE* a poster on TFW2005.com pointed out that the E-Hobby promotion is just going to be a comic. Suck. Oh well, I had fun digibashing this anyway.

*UPDATE PART 2* Hydra, a poster on TF boards who actually works for eHobby, has stated that these will not only have toy releases, but will be using the G1 molds. I'm glad these will be seeing plastic form, but a little sad that they're not going with the Music and Device label versions. Hydra did hint that eHobby is looking to start branching out to different molds besides the G1 releases, so fingers crossed for some Classics/Generations goodies in the near future!

Botcon is in the air

Botcon is getting closer, you can tell from all the interweb buzzings of "This is AWESOME!" and "That's HIDEOUS!" as FunPub begins unveiling the upcoming Botcon exclusives.

For the last few years, I've enjoyed making my own customs to fill out my Botcon ranks depending on whatever the theme happens to be. For '07's more 'Classicsverse' focused bunch, I made a custom Skullcruncher, Apeface, and Snapdragon to join the Botcon Weirdwolf. A Shattered Glass Galvatron leads my '08 'Heroic Decepticons,' and the '09 Wings of Honor set grew a bit with a custom Boss and Snare.

This year the announced theme has been Generation 2. It's as good as any, a niche corner of the TF Universe that collectors love that also have a slim to none chance of being released at retail. We've seen Pyro on the TFCC club's page, so now my head's been racing to figure out which character from G2 would make for an interesting custom. I am, of course going to aim a little outside the box for my first few, just to ensure there's little chance for an overlap.

First up:

I stumbled across these guys on the TF wiki. Apparently in the '95 Sears catalogue, there was a picture of some Unreleased prototypes, including recolored autorollers made into characters that were going to be called General Optimus Prime and Sgt. Hound. I LIKE that idea a lot.


I figured General Prime would work well as Classics Onslaught with some chamo and a new head.
Sgt. Hound? Recolor classics Hound, white with gray chamo, new head. Ravage could just be Ravage carried over from G1.


Maybe change Ravage's eyes to a different color and have the story be something like:
The Decepticons have only heard whispers of the name General Prime and his right hand, Sgt. Hound. In truth they have no idea what the duo look like, because when a Decepticon does see them, it means he's seconds away from being killed.
The Autobots don't know who the duo answer to, and with each unspeakable act of violence, the Autobots begin to wonder if they answer to anyone at all.


General Prime:
General Prime has been immersed in the Great War for so long he rarely acknowledges that there are even sides anymore. His focus has become more about ending the war, with little regard as to which side deserves to win. Though he has stated that his allegiance is with the Autobots, many of them wonder… if it meant bringing the war to an end, would he turn his fury upon them?

Sgt. Hound:
"Sgt. Hound is a relentless tracker and an unrelenting warrior. His loyalty to General Prime is topped only by his eagerness to inflict unnecessary damage upon anyone who refuses to cooperate.
He takes great pride in Ravage, whom he captured and reprogrammed to obey his commands. Ravage, though forced to follow Sgt. Hound's orders, has never stopped trying to figure how to override his captor's program. He dreams of the day he can break free of Sgt. Hound's control so he can exact revenge and return to his true master."

I’ve been eyeballing a few other characters within G2 that I think would be a nice addition to the Botcon set; I’ll post more digibashes as they’re completed.

(Credit for toy photos goes to Seibertron.com.)

Shattered Glass Galvatron

The latest exclusive Trasnformer being offered by FunPub is Shattered Glass Cyclonus. Not bad, I'll be getting him, but I would LOVE to have seen Shattered Glass Galvatron offered. Aside from SG Prime, Soundwave, and Omega Doom, this version of Galvatron has been the only member of the SG universe that made me do a double take. Pete Sinclair's posted on one of the TF message boards that there was a larger figure they wanted to offer, but Hasbro put the kibosh on the idea. I'm all but convinced it was supposed to be SG Galvatron, considering his bio was in the latest issue of the magazine, one that concluded the storyline. Considering they already made Megatron's SG form for Botcon, it would make a lot of sense to round out the line with his ressurrection as SG Galvatron.
So, to fix this travesty of justice (as much as one who's not working for Hasbro or FunPub can) I customized one of my own. Should one of a more official nature appear sometime down the road, I'll be more than happy to toss mine aside. But until then:







If you'd like to see larger versions of these pics, I also have a thread in the Radicons section of the TFW2005 messageboards.

Customize-o-mania

The more toys we see revealed for Botcon, the more motivated I feel to actually take a break from webcomics and get back to some custom ideas I've had in my head for a long time now. First on the chopping block was Black LioPrime... or whatever it is this mold is being called. Possibly one of the simplest customs in existence, the only difficult thing about this custom was getting my hands on a Dark Ligerjack for a decent price. Then just a splash of black, some silver for the ponytail, and a touch of red to bring out the eyes. Wallah! We have next year's Chicago Comic-Con's exclusive :)



But back to Botcon, I actually got moving on customizing Boss out of Classics Sideswipe.


I still really wish there was a better mold, but it was either this, Ironhide, or Prowl. So Sideswipe won out. I'm not a heavy custom modder, so the best I could do for his lack of a batmobile engine for a gun was to give him a targetmaster to match his colorscheme. Right now I'm debating whether or not to leave the black bits or cover them with blue. I know there was very little to no black on them save their tires, but eh, I'm a fan of black breaking up and adding to a colorscheme, so maybe I'll just leave it. Either way, Boss will be waiting for Thunder Clash. Heh, and he'll be fighting Snare, my other custom! I figure if I'm adding an Autobot Turbomaster, I may as well add to their rivals; the Predators. After looking through the cluster of them, I settled on Snare, I love the vibrant coloring on him, though I found a metallic Red that works just as well as the original coloring. If I have time, the purple menace Skydive will be next.
I tend to rotate when I customize, jumping between three to four customs. It works out nicely, giving the paint on each one time to dry before I come back to it.
Next up: Crosscut.

Why? I dunno. I was originally thinking Skidsz, even though he was *not* the same kid of vehicle as the original Ironhide. But, I think the mold would work nicely for him. Then I stumbled onto an e-Hobby recolor; Crosscut. I don't know why this recolor of the original G1 Skids caught my eye, but he did, so I'm now creating him out of Ironhide.


If I can get my hands on an extra Rodimus or Cybertron HotShot, I'll customize his female partner, Road Rage.

Other ideas in que for an inevitable repaint:
Pounce and Wingspan: NOBODY has thought to paint Energon Battle Ravage and Divebomb? Really? I would have thought we'd have seen these guys in the Universe line as a 2-pack a looong time ago.

Duocon Battletrap:
I actually had Battletrap as a kid, and for some reason I always loved the guy. he gets no respect! That's why I'd love to reimagine him into an updated Classics form. Now, being a Duocon, the idea of being two vehicles that combine into one is not something I have the time or energy to figure out... so I wanted to try the next best thing.


Let's push the character a bit and say, I dunno, the Decepticons wanted to maximize Battletrap's effectiveness on the battlefield, so they upgraded his individual components with the ability to take on individual robot forms. BUT, keeping in with the spirit of the original gimmic, those two should be able to *somehow* combine for maximum effectiveness. Enter Energon Barricade and Windrazor. Since Barricade is the center component for one of the combiners, his arm easily becomes a great holster to allow Windrazor to latch on and convert to its gestalt-arm form. Not quite what the Duocons were known for in G1, but *still* two vehicles "combining" to cause lots of destruction.


I figure these three customs will help bulk up my Botcon set. I'd like to do more, but I've already spent more time on these than I planned, and ignored doing some much needed work on feral ignition.