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.”
  

E3, the once great video game Exposition, has been reduced to a shadow of its former self. What was once a never-ending cacophony of lights, sound and swag is now an invitation only press event. While we can still expect industry-shaping keynotes from the big three hardware developers, the show floor is barely recognizable. Industry giants, Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo, Electronic Arts, THQ and others have been relegated to a 20’X20′ space.

Quite a contrast to previous E3s where developers battled each other for total show supremacy. After last year’s expo, which was completely dominated by Nintendo and the newly revealed Wii, Sony and Microsoft decided that paying millions or dollars for little or, worse yet, negative press coverage just wasn’t worth the effort. They basically took their ball and went home. The other big companies followed suit and now we have, what I’ve dubbed, Neo-E3, or the E3 Media & Business Summit.

Moved from May to July, and Los Angeles to Santa Monica, the newly redesigned expo is meant to create a smaller, more intimate environment for developers and publishers to talk shop. Neo-E3 is also designed to make it easier for independent developers to roll out their wares to potential publishers, (even though next to no indie devs are on the roster).

Hopefully we can expect more direct feed footage and one on one interviews with the movers and shakers of the industry. The E3 Media & Business Summit will take place from July 11-13th.

What are your thoughts on the redesigned E3 expo?

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.

Courtesy the good folks at Video Gaiden, a video game show on BBC Scotland. Rab leads a rant on gamer stereotypes, the truth behind them, and what you can do to break them.

Did you know BBC Scotland had a video game show? Its quite good, and you can find many segments online. I don’t suppose a US channel would step up to import something like this, or maybe show it on BBC America?

It’s been about a week since Anime Boston 2007 came to pass, and post-convention funk has already seeped into the souls of most of us. However, I’ll take the time to touch upon a few things that I personally can report on in terms of my opinions about this, the convention’s fifth year of existence.

[Read the rest of this entry…]

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.

In honor of the 30th Anniversary of Star Wars, Cartoon Network’s Robot Chicken will dedicate an entire episode toward the film classic.

CNN reports that its got George Lucas involved, as well as Mark Hamill who will reprise his role as Luke Skywalker in the stop motion animated satire. The rest of the voice cast is decidedly un-Star Wars, with Conan O’Brien, Joey Fatone, and Hulk Hogan. Lucasfilm will also provide the authentic sound files for Chewbacca and R2D2.

Source: Lucas, Hamill reunite for ‘Star Wars’ spoof

The Transformers Club was kind enough to update their site again without sending a complimentary heads up email to members of the club. I’m not bitter though. I enjoy reading about club updates on other news sites even though I’m a paying club member.

Anywho, the club has posted some teaser art for the summer comic. Art is by Alex Milne and story by Forest Lee. Below the art is the following text:

I have mirrored the art below. Its interesting, in that, it shows some new characters/molds. In the forefront appears to be a repainted Cybertron Armorhide in blue and yellow (Punch/Counterpunch??), Cybertron Thunderblast as Elita-1. Behind them is Classics Ultra Magnus. I believe a repaint of Cybertron Defense Hot Shot (in green? Springer?) is to Magnus’ left. Grimlock is on his right. Two others are in the further background that I cannot make out. Let the speculation begin!