In a previous post, I mentioned that I had found a couple of very impressive scratch-built customs of a couple Transformers Generation 1 characters. The same person who made those customs is at it again with another Generation 1 character, the triple changing Octane. Its still in progress, but impressive nonetheless.

  

The Four Horsemen revealed this year’s FANtastic Exclusive figure on figures.com today.The character has yet to be named, but will be available for purchase at the San Diego Comic Con, in addition to their online store at StoreHorsemen.com for a paltry USD$25.00.

The ever observant Baena of the FANtastic Forums noted that the two hand swords, when placed side by side, form the shape of the very large buster sword, which you see mounted on the figure’s back.

  

The FANtastic Exclusives are voted on by fans at many different steps in its development. This year’s polls included determining the series the figure would come from, the character itself, the figure’s size, articulation and finally, weapons. Last year’s exclusive was Xetheus the Minotaur, Champion of Mynothecea. You can see a full gallery I put together for that figure here and an edition of PowetToys featuring Xetheus and his limited variants here.

Powet Forum member Raistlin brings us news on new Stargate figures:

It seems the Stargate franchise will continue to roll despite the imminent end to the television series. Ten years is a long time, especially for a science fiction show (that isn’t named Doctor Who, and one that’s changed networks). But with two straight to dvd movies already in production, a third spin off television show in the development stages and a MMORPG in the works, it shows this bastion of nerdliness will continue on. Following on this is diamond selects announcement of a somewhat special themed wave 4 of the excellent SG1 action figures. The theme, desert combat, featuring the original SG1 team of Jack O’Neill, Samantha Carter, Daniel Jackson, and everyday badass Teal’c.

While since wave two had featured the desert camo Carter action figure on the back of the packaging, it was never released. Nor was there any plan to do so as of wave two’s release.

 

Also of note is the previews exclusive fifth figure that will be a part of this wave, Jonas Quin. Whether he will sport the desert combat theme or the more standard green fatigues remains to be seen. Jonas Quin replaced Jackson for the sixth season until Jacksons return in
season seven.

Now since there are very few action figure lines that don’t support some kind of build-a-figure type element, we have two such elements. The MALP (Mobile Analytic Laboratory Probe) will be assembled, as well as the ground based Transporter Rings or ring platform. Add these to your Stargate and DHD (dial-home-device) and you’re ready to explore the universe. With this desert combat theme I feel confidant in proposing that a wave five should feature a Black Ops Samantha Carter to finish off that theme. And while I’m at it we need a General Hammond, Master Bra’tac, Apophis and General Landry.

The fifth and final figure in the Botcon 2007 Exclusive set was revealed today. Dreadwind will be a repaint of Classics Jetfire with a remolded head designed by fan club artist Dan Khanna. As always, I have mirrored the images below.

When I first heard that Dreadwind would be one of the exclusives, I hoped that we might get a Darkwing to go along with him. I was a big Darkwing fan when I was younger because I had the toy and he had an unusually cool transformation for the time. If you compare the two G1 characters in jet mode to the jet mode of Classics Jetfire, Darkwing is actually a much closer match. Going by robot mode, though, Dreadwind wins out since he has the cockpit on his chest, while Darkwing’s chest is the underside of the plane.

Source for image of G1 Dreadwind head: TFU.Info.

“We’re Doomed. Not that it matters.”
  

Botcon.com has posted the fourth figure in the Botcon 2007 exclusive box set of five. Bugbite is a straight repaint of Classics Bumblebee. He is another Decepticon and supposedly the leader of the pack. Bugbite is actually not a new character. Similar to Sunstorm, the Bugbite character originates from an E-Hobby Exclusive repaint of the Generation 1 book-format reissues. In the reissue set, six minibots were included with Bumblebee featuring a retooled, cartoon accurate face (see post banner). This set’s E-Hobby exclusive counterpart featured repainted versions of the six minibots with new names and some new alliegances. It is also worth mentioning that the names given to the repaints were all former Go-Bot names with similar alt modes (Pathfinder, Smallfoot, Bug Bite, Treads, Bad Boy, and Road Ranger).

 

Bug Bite photos from Botcon.com
Bug Bite E-Hobby Exclusive face picture from tfu.info.

The Tubes have been abuzz the past few days with rumors that Blizzard Entertainment will announce a sequel to their smash hit strategy game, Starcraft.

The initial rumor, here, indicates that Blizzard will make an announcement on May 19th at the World Wide Invitational that will supposedly reveal that Starcraft 2 is currently under development. Accompanied with this would be some rough videos of the progress so far.

According to this link, Blizzard has responded with the following statement:

We do intend to announce a new product at the Worldwide Invitational next month in Korea, and we appreciate the enthusiasm and interest in getting an advance look at what that will be, but players will have to wait until May 19th to find out more. Also, we have a very strong connection with the characters and settings of StarCraft, and we do plan to revisit that universe at some point in the future, but we don’t have anything new to announce in that regard at present.

I’m not convinced that the announcement will be something other than Starcraft 2, but there is a high chance it will be Diablo 3 instead.

Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark.

Source: USA Today

Botcon.com posted some images today of Exclusive Classics Thrust that have eased any concerns I had on the figure. Images of both modes have been mirrored below. As the last of the original seekers to be revealed, it was significant that his wings have been remolded to more accurately portray his original namesake. Dirge and Thundercracker did not really need any retooling. While all the ‘coneheads’ (Ramjet, Thrust and Dirge) had differently molded wings, Ramjet and Dirge’s wings were similar enough that a straight repaint was not out of left field. Thrust, however, had very different wings in that they had VTOL fans in the center and were placed in the mid section of the fuselage with additional tail fins, whereas on the other jets the main wings were based further back on the fuselage.

You can view some pictures of the original toy and its cartoon counterpart here. To see the previously announced exclusives, see here for Dirge and here for Thundercracker.