Transformers Artifact of the Week: Botcon 2009 Elite Guard Production Sample Set (Flak, Kup, Landshark, Thuderclash)

I picked these up at Botcon 2023. I didn’t have any Botcon preproduction or prototype toys, so when the opportunity arose, I couldn’t pass on these. I’ve never reviewed these toys, so now is as good a time as any.

Flak

Flak, a repaint of Cybertron Defense Scattershot is an awesome toy. I love the arctic camo paintjob. This was one of my favorite Transformers Cybertron toys. Given how long it’s been since we had toys with firing missiles, it almost feels like a G1 toy, and that’s not the only reason. I don’t think he has any ball joints. He’s big and bulky and stands up well. I miss the way Hasbro used to design toys. As you can see Hasbro has stamped “Not For Sale” on it. They also damaged his chest and face, which is pretty stupid, since it only makes this a more desirable toy (more detail from Zabgoth below). I wouldn’t even know it was not a production toy if not that that. I’m sure Zabgoth can expand on the differences between this and the production version.

Zabgoth’s Notes: The intentional defacement here was a practice Hasbro used around this time to discourage the sale of toys that hadn’t been fully approved for release. Possibly in response to the prior year’s exclusives being for sale on Ebay thru factory leaks before Botcon. In addition to the “not for resale” tampo being used on an area that can fit it, there’s also 3-6 digit codes more often found tampoed on production samples. An example of this sample with the original Scattorshot head was sold on eBay within the last year.

More Zabgoth’s Notes: The chest tampo on the Flak production sample is incomplete. The final release has a white outline.

Kup

Kup is repainted from Cybertron Red Alert with a new head. He’s got a great paintjob. My only complaint is that his head sticks out the top of his vehicle mode. I mean, it would have looked stupid if it were small enough to fit, but still, it looks ridiculous. Kup’s intentional damage is far less noticeable than Flak’s.

Zabgoth’s Notes: Kup appears identical to the final version.

Landshark

Landshark is a repaint of Energon Landmine. His halftrack vehicle mode looks great, and I like him in these colors. I think I prefer his regular robot mode without the additional parts. I don’t mind the backpack so much, but his arms are weird. They don’t look like he has longer arms, they look like he’s got treads strapped onto his arms. The damage on Landshark is under his backpack making it even less noticeable than Kup’s. The production sample has several deco changes from the final version. The red paint on his chest, knees, and the stripes on his treads has been switched from red to brown. The stripes on his lower legs were switched from brown to red. Also, and this may be just my eyes or the lighting, but his brown plastic appears to be more metallic on the production sample. Lastly, on the sides of his torso there is a vertical stripe on each side that flares out. This was silver on the production sample and black on the final toy.

Zabgoth’s Notes: The Autobot symbol with the EG chevrons was revised on the final toy. His power claws / front base has more decos on the final version.

Thunderclash

Thunderclash is a repaint of Energon Rodimus. This is a great mold, and I really like it in these colors. There are a lot of paint apps. They did a really nice job on this one. I had to really look to find the damage on him.

Zabgoth’s Notes: Thunderclash appears identical to the final version.

Cyber Keys

Lastly, the set came with three Cyber Keys. I never watched the Cybertron cartoon, and never had any interest in the whole Cyber Key thing. The left two keys are identical, both for Flak, probably just an oversite that it was thrown in with this set. Zabgoth found something interesting about them as I recall. I’ll let him tell you what that was.

Zabgoth’s Notes: The right most key shown here may be a variation in and of itself as I don’t recall any toys ever being sold with a key decoed like that. (I found a pic of Kup’s key. The sample lacks chevrons.)

As always, you can find over 22,000 Transformers artifacts from every Transformers series and generation at TFMuseum.com.

Thanks for reading!