BotCon 2014 Exclusives revealed – Pirates vs Knights

Botcon 2014 is nearly upon us. Signaling 30 years of franchise history, the convention is sure to be one for the books. This year’s set will follow the theme of pitting Decepticon Pirates against Cybertronian Knights. Join us after the break for a look at each of this year’s exclusives!

Decepticons/Pirates

Cannonball

 

Cannonball was a repaint of Cybertron Red Alert from the Transformers Cybertron line. His tribal ‘tattoos’ and pirate backstory made Cannonball a prime target for this set of exclusives. His character would later be used as first mate of the Star Seekers under Thundertron’s command from the Aligned Continuity. Cannonball uses the Transformers Prime Ratchet mold with a remolded head. The face sculpt does not feature an eye patch, but rather a paint application over one of the eyes of the newly tooled head. This was done as an homage to the original toy.

Images of original toy:

 

Ferak w/ Tornado

 

Ferak was a member of Squandron X, a feared Decepticon counterpart to the Autobots’ no non-sense Wreckers team. In this set, he is part of the Decepticon Pirates. While the use of the Cyclonus mold in this set is no surprise, his coloring is. His extremely brief appearance in Last Stand of the Wreckers portrayed both of his modes being a very light lavender, while the exclusive’s primary color is a very bright white. Ferak comes with a targetmaster partner named Tornado. Tornado was also a member of Squadron X with Ferak. Fun Publications created a Facebook account for Tornado that updates with regular logs of his routine and regular hijinks as a saboteur for the Pirates aboard the Tidal Wave.

Ferak’s brief appearance in Last Stand of the Wreckers:

Scorponok

  

Scorponok uses the Energon Scorponok mold colored in the likeness of G1 Scorponok. The highlight of this figure is that it is actually a headmaster and is retooled so that a G1 headmaster partner can be fitted onto his shoulders. The partner that comes with Scorponok is, in fact, a retooled version of Spike Witwicky, the headmaster of Fort Max (available to Fun Pub due to the recent Fortress Maximus reissue in Japan), with a retooled faceplate based on the G1 character’s model sheet head. This figure is definitely the centerpiece of the set.

Autobots/Knights

Devcon

 

Devcon is a character that was featured in the G1 cartoon as a bounty hunter, but never actually received a toy in his G1 likeness after all this time. Using the scourge mold with a retooled head, Fun Pub has brought this character back a member of the Autobot Knights.

Ginrai (Fire Guts)

 

While this is a repaint of the Classics Voyager Optimus Prime figure, this is not Optimus Prime. This is Ginrai. In Japan, Ginrai could combine with his trailer to form Super Ginrai (known here as Powermaster Optimus Prime, but it wasn’t Optimus Prime in Japan). His second trailer could also combine with Super Ginrai to form God Ginrai. In 2002, an E-Hobby exclusive was released in orange and gold colors as Fire Guts God Ginrai. This exclusive is the base Ginrai in Fire Guts colors.

Fire Guts God Ginrai:

Souvenir Set speculation!
There have been a lot of rumors about the at-convention souvenir figures. A list has been floating around for a while now that seems to make a lot of sense. Since this is both the 30th Anniversary of Transformers and the 10th Botcon under Fun Publications’ helm and 20th Anniversary of the first Botcon, the list shows a lot of updated versions of previous convention exclusive characters. A few pictures have even surfaced that seem to match some of those rumors. Below is the list accompanied by pictures of the mold and characters. Mind you, these are not pictures of the exclusives for this year. Just the influences.

Alpha Trion – Transformers Prime Thundertron mold (Based on 3H’s Wreckers Alpha Trion)

 

Flame War – Transformers Prime Beast Hunters Arcee mold (Based on the Botcon 2005 Flame War)

See below for leaked photos of actual figure!

Flare Up – Transformers Prime First Edition mold (Based on the Botcon 2005 Flare Up)

Shokaract – Transformers Prime Megatron using Club Rampage head (Based on the Botcon 2000 Shokaract)

  

Apelinq – Transformers Beast Wars 10th Anniv. Optimus Primal mold (Based on the Botcon 2000 Apelinq)

 

Pounce & Wingspan – Transformers Prime Vehicon & Jet Vehicon molds

 

This list seems to be shy one figure though. Traditionally there is two sets of 2 figures, one set of 3 figures and one convention freebie figure. That totals 8 figures, but the list only shows 7. It seems likely that this figure will either be another throwback to a previous convention exclusive or a tie-in to the main set’s storyline.

Flame War
Flame War has already surfaced on an auction site with plenty of pictures seen below.