After a long series of delays and setbacks, the Four Horsemen have given us a long awaited updated on the status of the Exclusives from last year.

To bring everyone up to speed, the first factory gave everyone the run around trying to avoid being shut down. Eventually, they were closed their doors and neglected to let 4H in on the situation. Fortunately, with a little intervention from some friends over at NECA, the molds were salvaged and a new factory was hired. That is a very short description of what happened over a very long period of time. The figures were produced at the new factory and pre-production samples looked very very promising. The large shipment of figures was scheduled to be shipped March 20th, 2008. They are hopeful that they will be in with enough time to bring them to NYCC to sell at the booth the Four Horsemen will be sharing with Action Figure Express. Eric Treadaway mentioned that due to some order cancellations that there would be a good opportunity for singles and sets of the whole Anitherian Nine lineup available, though, he was not specific on details.

You can read it all here or look after the jump for the original text. The link also has some pictures the factory sent the 4H of Ramathor in production.

We’ve been following this series of figures for a while now:
Ramathor revealed
Variants Revealed 1
Variants Revealed 2
Variants Revealed 3
Variants Revealed 4
[Read the rest of this entry…]

Next month, NECA will be releasing action figures for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles based on their original comic book design. Each figure comes loaded with accessories including a small turtle, weapons, and base. The first wave consists of Leonardo, Donatello, Michaelangelo and Raphael. I have not heard of any plans for future waves, but if I do, I’ll be sure to post about it. Figures.com had pictures of the packaging.
    

Fans attending the New York Comic Con will have a chance to purchase the entire wave in an exclusive box set.

Here are the figures loose:

   

Feel free to join in the discussion on these figures here on our forums.

Source: Figures.com

In an unexpected turn of events, the Botcon Exclusive box set has already sold out. While no official word of the sell out has been posted on the Botcon.com site, TFW2005 is reporting this as fact based on an email received from Botcon staff in relation to an inquiry about the box set.

That means for the second year in a row, the Exclusive Box set for the convention has sold out before the last figure(s) had been revealed. This is a surprise considering the rabid anticipation for last year’s set compared to the seemingly lukewarm reception for this year’s set.

The last two figures were revealed shortly after the reported sell out.

First up we have Starscream, whom we previously saw a prototype of here. Its nice to see he’s been given some more paint apps than the prototype shows. That being said, whenever I look at it, all I can think is that Starscream is wearing a Jetfire halloween costume.

 

Lastly, we have been shown the mini-con, Razorclaw. Razorclaw is a repaint of Overbite from the Classics Mini-con Predator Attack team. That means there are still two more mini-cons from that team to be included in either the at-convention exclusive sets or the preregistration freebie. Rumored to be in the exclusive at-convention sets are a black version of Classics Rodimus with a beard in one set and a repainted Energon Megatron painted in black and silver with blue wings in the other set.

 

Botcon.com has posted four new pictures revealing two figures in both modes from the convention exclusive box set for this year. I think Jazz’s colors and new head came out great. I wasn’t a big fan of the Cybertron Crosswise mold, though, so I’m not sure how excited I am about it.
 

The revelation of Grimlock puts the kibosh on the photo from taobao.com (?) of the black Grimlock as being the Botcon exclusive.

 

Here is the photo of the rumored black Grimlock:

Also, it appears that a prototype of the Botcon repaint of Cybertron Voyager Class Starscream has surfaced. He appears to be modeled very much in the likeness of Jetfire. You can see the auction here with lots of pictures. I’ve included a few of them below.
 

Today we have for you the robot and vehicle images of Goldbug from the Botcon 2008 Convention exclusive box set of figures. We’ve already posted about Prime in robot mode here and his alt mode here.

 

Goldbug’s face is colored like his G1 namesake in blue, but the rest of his colors liken him more to the G1 Deluxe Insecticons. Specifically Chop Shop’s general body shape and color scheme.

  

Remember to check out Botcon.com for more information on the exclusives, the convention and all other things Botcon.

Images of G1 Goldbug and Deluxe Insecticons hail from TFU.INFO.

In the current tradition of dragging things out as long as possible before every gets to see the full set, Botcon.com posted the alt mode of the already revealed ‘Shattered Glass’ Optimus Prime based on the Classics mold of Prime. This is the first figure revealed thus far in the Botcon Convention Exclusive box set of figures.

So far I have to say that I’m liking this figure. I love all the detailing in the vehicle mode from the ‘Til All are Gone!’ to the cracked windshield. The color scheme in robot mode reminds me of Black Zarak’s scheme, particularly with the splash of gold on the crotch. Maybe not so much with the pale red, but thats what it made me think.

Botcon.com has revealed the first figure from the 2008 Convention Exclusive box set of figures. The figure is a repainted Transformers Classics Optimus Prime mold. The theme this year is called ‘Shattered Glass’ and takes place in a ‘mirror universe’ of sorts, where many things are reversed. In this case, the Autobots are the villains, while the Decepticons are the heroes. Optimus will lead the evil Autobots.

I must admit, its a bit disappointing they only showed the robot mode for this figure considering the past two years, they revealed both modes.

Powet board member Tigerpaw has shared some info with us from the Transformers Collector Club:

At 7:44pm EST tonight, a listing of the first wave of the upcoming Universe/Classics 2.0 toys was posted in the Transformers Collectors Club Forums. Also posted was news that the Seacons re-issue, and club exclusive Nightbeat toy that have been rumored, are now officially a go, with hopes that they’ll be ready in time for Botcon. Pre-orders will be in March with the figures shipping in April.

Then at precisely 7:45pm, the Master Collector servers crashed from the ensuing rush of traffic.

At 8:20 or so, the servers came back up, and I finally got a look at the post. The rundown:

Wave 1 of Classics 2.0/Universe

Deluxes:
Sunstreaker
Prowl
Tankor (Octane)

Ultras:
Onslaught
powetglide

A picture was posted of Sunstreaker but per club rules, it is not allowed to be reposted. It’s not known at this time whether pictures of the other figures will be posted or not.

We saw some design and proto images of Tankor/Octane at Botcon. Onslaught was revealed in the image above not too long ago. Since I’m also a member of the club, I logged in to see Sunstreaker and, although he looked mistransformed a bit, he appears to be a nice addition to the line.