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!

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Due to a scheduling error, we are running a little behind in our week of Botcon reveals, so here is another! Obsidian!
Obsidian, like Strika, is another character from Beast Machines ported back to Machine Wars in his former Autobot glory. Obsidian uses the Hunt for the Decepticons Highbrow mold with a newly tooled head. He looks pretty great in robot mode, especially with those rotors on his arms like his Beast Machines design. The alternate mode is a bit more of a departure considering Obsidian was a helicopter in Beast Machines.

 

Here is a side by side by of the toys for Strika and Obsidian from Beast Machines.

[Image Source]

Continuing our week of Botcon 2013 convention exclusive reveals, our third figure in the set is Strika. A bit of a surprise that this character was chosen since she was actually from Beast Machines, but I guess they are making some sort of connection because they both have ‘Machines’ in the title. Whatever works, I guess. She is shown here as an Autobot so this would take place before Beast Machines. She uses the Generations Warpath mold with a great deal of deco and a newly sculpted head.

 

Due to all the craziness of Toy Fair and the news streaming out of it, we fell a little behind posting the Botcon reveals for this year’s convention box set. Kicking off with Saturday’s Top 5 Machine Wars themed article, we are having ourselves a bit of a Botcon 2013 themed week. We’ll continue posting the reveals as the week goes on until we get caught up. Today, we take a look at Botcon 2013 Skywarp.

Skywarp was a pretty plainly deco’d basic figure in the original Machine Wars line. He was mostly white with little other than the faction symbol to break up the color. The new Botcon figure uses the Revenge of the Fallen Dirge mold with a retooled head.

 

It’s that time of year again where we patiently wait for the unveiling of each of the Botcon box set exclusives to be revealed until registration goes on sale before we see all of them and quickly sells out. The theme this year for the box set is Machine Wars. This was a very short lived line from 1997 that was really only available at Kay-Bee Toys stores.

Today we get a look at Hoist. Hoist was a basic figure in the line. He was a tow truck that looked a little more like a dump track with a hook on the back of it. Fun Publications has chosen to use the Generations Kup mold with a retooled head for this figure. The image seen is just a mock-up and not the actual figure, so our mileage is likely to vary, but as far as robot mode goes, it looks pretty good. The head is pretty spot on and I’m pleased with the translation from the original figure. The color scheme is very basic, so it matches pretty well. I imagine they saved some money on paint apps for this figure so they can lavish some other figure in the line. I don’t think the vehicle mode is a good match. Kup is a pickup, whereas Hoist is supposed to be a tow truck. He’s not really hoisting anything, though. He’s more hauling than anything else.

What do you think of Hoist? Tell us in the comments and help us speculate what other figures could be coming in this set!

Botcon 2013 will be in San Diego, CA at the Town and Country Resort and Conference Center.

The theme of this show and convention set will be Machine Wars.

The Powet.TV crew hope to see you all there. We already have our rooms booked and ready to go!

The Botcon site has information on booking rooms, but I called the hotel directly and was quickly helped.

At Botcon 2012 we caught up with Matt “Tieg” Tieger” to talk about the upcoming Transformers video game “Fall of Cybertron”. If you’re not already excited for this game, you should probably check out this clip so that you can get on board.

The Transformers Collectors’ Club Roundtable panel happened at 3PM EST on Saturday April 28th, 2012 at Botcon. Among the announcements were the free club exclusive membership figure for next year, the figure subscription service (FSS) for Transformers, and some narrative behind the creation of this year’s exclusive set and box artwork.

Join us after the jump for all the details, pictures and even a little video.

[UPDATE – Crazy: The Club has posted an official version of the Depth Charge artwork. I have included it in the banner]
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