Botcon 2013 Skywarp & Thundercracker

If you haven’t read my full review of Botcon Toys, Merchandise, and news from Botcon and San Diego Comic Con, click here.

I really like the Machine Wars concept this year.  I’m not crazy about the inclusion of Strika and Obsidian because I really never liked them as characters and they have nothing to do with Machine Wars.  If they had to be included, I would have preferred they be Decepticons instead of Autobots.  Since the toys are both molds that I really like that doesn’t bother me too much though.

What does bother me is ridiculous coloring on some of the toys.  Let’s be honest, the reason Machine Wars was created was so that Hasbro could maintain trademarks.  Some names like Optimus Prime, Soundwave, Hoist, Hubcap, Skywarp, Thundercracker, and Starscream hadn’t been used in several years.  The toys were all reuses of existing molds (though a few had not been seen before due to the cancellation of G2).  The art was all reused and didn’t match most of the toys.  I don’t see how you can conclude that it was anything other than a bunch of random toys and art thrown together to maintain the trademarks on the names.  This being the case, it’s clear they didn’t put much thought into the color schemes.  That’s why we have toys that do not match the characters color schemes in any way.  (Even if they are supposed to be different iterations of the characters, they should still have had the correct colors.)  What Fun Publications really should have done is make the “second wave of Machine Wars toys” match the proper color schemes for the characters rather than continue to do them wrong.  Two wrongs don’t make a right.

Mold Used: Transformers Revenge of the Fallen Deluxe Dirge (Repainted with a new head.)

I have very little to say about these guys, mostly because I think very little of these guys.  I’m not a huge fan of the mold they chose.  The right arm is terrible and they should have done them in their traditional colors.  I do like the new head sculpt, and if you ignore that they should be different colors, the paint jobs are nice.  I heard that Thundercracker was supposed to have glow in the dark green paint.  That really wouldn’t have added anything to it in my opinion.

This sticker was being given out free to cover Skywarp’s purple G1 symbol.  The outline black G2 symbol is what Machine Wars Skywarp had on his wing.  The question is, why was a sticker needed?  Why didn’t they just have the right logo put on?  Of course, that could be another factory mistake, but I’ve not heard one way or the other.

I can’t rate these guys very high since the mold isn’t great and they aren’t properly colored.  Skywarp gets a bit of a higher grade for that “warping” paint job.

Thundercracker Grade: C

Skywarp Grade: B-

Thanks for reading!